US star Pulisic once played with Gakpo at PSV: ‘And then came Dortmund’

• Franklin Stoker

  Editor NOS Sports

Can star player Pulisic play against the Netherlands? ‘I take it day by day’

If you say LeBron James, you say basketball. And when you think of Tom Brady, you think of American football. Chelsea footballer Christian Pulisic is on his way to achieving the same status as his iconic compatriots in American football. And oh yes, he once played with Cody Gakpo.

More about his link with Gakpo later, let’s first see who will face Denzel Dumfries and Daley Blind on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. as ‘wingbacks’ when the Netherlands duels with the United States for a place in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The 24-year-old Pulisic is an invaluable winger for Team USA as a winger.

Just think of his winning goal against Iran (1-0), helping the US to the next round. Pulisic paid for his goal with a pelvic contusion after a collision with the Iranian goalkeeper.

He was in a lot of pain afterwards, but after a visit to the hospital it became clear that the confrontation with the Orange is feasible for him.

But who is this Chelsea footballer who, with his appearance, could appear in a boy band or American teen movie?

Pulisic, born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, combines technique with perseverance and occasionally scores his goal. An agile type that is difficult to play. The defense of Orange has therefore been warned.

The introverted Pulisic is someone you don’t often see doing crazy things, both on and off the field. “Lead by example”, as the footballer himself says: let your feet do the talking.

Pulisic is 24 years old, but already has 55 international matches to his name. Add to that 127 duels with Borussia Dortmund and 133 games for Chelsea and it will come as no surprise that he is already a great gentleman in his own country.

Since his transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea in 2019, he has also been the most expensive North American footballer (64 million euros).

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Pulisic: ‘We have an energetic, hungry and young team’

Pulisic left for Germany in 2015 as a fifteen-year-old football player, but he was close to joining the PSV youth academy. Pulisic was on trial twice with the club from Eindhoven in 2013 and 2014.

Rini de Groot, then already PSV’s head youth scout, was immediately sold when he let Pulisic train with the under-13 youth for a week.

“We had a very nice class with Cody Gakpo, Armando Obispo and Jordan Teze, among others. Christian could easily keep up with the level,” said De Groot. “He was a fantastic guy. Introverted, but he could play football well.”

In May 2013, Pulisic will also join the PSV youth team at the prestigious and international Marveld youth tournament in Groenlo, Drenthe, in which youth teams from Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, for example, also participate. There, Pulisic immediately impressed with a number of goals.

Even more impressed than Gakpo, De Groot recalls. “Cody was often decisive as a youth, but he was going through growing pains at the time, so it was difficult for him to show his best game during that period.”

But they were once on the field together: the current World Cup stars Pulisic and Gakpo, together on a field in Groenlo, Drenthe.

PSV was enthusiastic and Pulisic was allowed to come back six months later for a second internship. De Groot had seen enough and then made every effort to bring in Pulisic. “He was eligible for a Croatian passport (his grandfather is Croatian, ed.), which allowed him to play with us at the age of 16.”

PSV prepared everything to bring in the then 14-year-old Pulisic. A host family was found and tailor-made education was even considered. “Only his passport application took longer and longer, and then Borussia Dortmund came into the picture,” says De Groot.

The German top club probably got Pulisic on the radar through a lobby from the player’s agent or an observant German scout, who may have been present in Groenlo.

“It actually became a hopeless story when Borussia Dortmund came into the picture,” says John de Jong, who worked as a chief scout at PSV at the time and would later become the club’s technical manager.

“That club is so strong financially and also has a good reputation for training youth players. You can hardly compete with that. It was a pity for us, but a logical choice from his point of view.”

According to De Groot, there was another factor that worked against PSV. “Dortmund promised Christian’s father a job as a youth coach. PSV could not offer that, because that is something that goes against our principles: no parents of players in the technical staff. Then it becomes much too close.”

Pulisic eventually leaves for Dortmund and makes his debut for the Bundesliga club in January 2016, two years after his second internship at PSV, at the age of 17.

De Groot then kept in touch with Pulisic and his father for a long time. “No hard feelings.” But it still gnaws when the scout reviews the whole story again. “It has hurt more and more over the years, when I saw that Christian was doing better and better, I say that honestly.”

Finally, what does Pulisic actually remember about those two training weeks at PSV? Not much, it turns out. He also does not light up when he is reminded of that one week in Groenlo at the press conference in Doha on Thursday, where he played in one team with Gakpo. “Oh wow, I hadn’t looked at it that way.”