The U.S. soccer star known as Captain America could have met me anywhere on this late February evening. As an elite athlete on AC Milan, one of the world’s most iconic soccer clubs, he could have picked a restaurant that comps the team’s players, arrived in a Maserati, discussed his journey to the 2026 World Cup, then dashed off to some swanky shindig.
In a week that would see stars like Alicia Keys, Kendall Jenner, and David Beckham come through town to sit front row, Pulisic arrives on a scooter to a golf-club lounge near the airport, decked out in comfy, and not exactly couture, apparel.
—Photograph by Alex F Webb for TIMEPulisic brought that intensity to bear at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in what would become his defining moment. Late in the first half of the U.S. team’s must-win game against Iran, midfielder Weston McKennie played a ball to Sergiño Dest, streaking up the right side of the field toward the Iranian goal. “My eyes lit up,” says Pulisic now. He bull-charged toward the box, took Dest’s header off his right foot, and smashed into the Iranian keeper as the ball touched the net, sacrificing his well-being for the good of the team. He suffered a pelvic contusion and had to watch the second half from a hospital bed, but his goal gave the Americans a 1-0 lead they would never relinquish. “That’s what stamps your legacy,” says Pulisic.
Scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Iran during the FIFA World Cup on Nov. 29, 2022, in Doha, Qatar —Dean Mouhtaropoulos—Getty ImagesAs the face of Team USA, Pulisic will be everywhere, appearing in campaigns for, among others, Puma, Degree, Michelob Ultra, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Chobani, and yes, Ritz. But he’ll also be carrying the weight of American impatience. At this home World Cup, American soccer fans and pundits are demanding more than a typical token slot in the knockout round. They’ve heard, over and over, about how the American talent pool is deeper than ever, now that the sport has caught on here. So why hasn’t the U.S. returned to a men’s World Cup quarterfinal in the past 24 years?
An elephant, however, now looms. Pulisic has finished nothing this year. He has gone 17 matches without scoring a goal for AC Milan, his worst streak in his club career, and he hasn’t scored for the U.S. team since November 2024. Before January, Marco Messina, who covers Italy’s top league, Serie A, for CBS Sports and Paramount+, called Pulisic arguably its most consistent player. Now his assessment is more measured. “We don’t want to be prisoners of the moment too much,” he says. “But we also have to say the truth. He does not look like himself right now.”
—Alex F Webb for TIME —Alex F Webb for TIMEJust the time for Pulisic to turn all the negative talk on its head. “This summer is huge,” says former U.S. national-team star Tab Ramos. “He could potentially become an American icon, doing something no one has ever done before. This is going to be Christian Pulisic’s team. It’s right in front of him.”
Pulisic continued his global soccer education in England, when he was 7. His mother Kelley, a PE instructor, won a Fulbright teaching award, so the family spent a year in Tackley, a village near Oxford. On a concrete slab near his school, Pulisic went up against older boys. “He had to survive on his own on the hard court,” says Mark. “I just remember him out there all the time, having fun. We’d have to pull him off the court to get to dinner.”
—Alex F Webb for TIMERamos, who would serve as youth technical director for U.S. Soccer from 2013 through 2019, first spotted Pulisic when he was 12, facing older competition in the Washington, D.C., area. “I see this little kid that looks like he doesn’t belong on the field, like he’s going to get hurt,” says Ramos. “And then every time he got the ball, it almost seemed like the world stopped. I’ve never seen anyone dominate the game by playing so simple. I really can’t relate it to any other youth game that I’ve seen, in the U.S. or overseas.” Ramos went to the sideline to ask Mark, who was coaching Pulisic’s team, if he could call U.S. Soccer about his son.
Playing for Germany's Borussia Dortmund as a teen in 2016 —Team 2 Sportphoto—Getty Images
Pulisic calls that initial period away from home “the most difficult year of my life.” He had given up his high school experience only to find his new teammates—less than keen on some American kid taking their jobs—refuse to pass him the ball. “You just start to feel more and more like, ‘Wow, these guys genuinely don’t want me to succeed,’” says Pulisic. German lessons were a drag. Because of age restrictions for non-E.U. players, Pulisic couldn’t even suit up in league games until he received a Croatian passport some nine months after he arrived. (His paternal grandfather was born there.)
The U.S. national team also called him up that spring. In May, Pulisic worked up the courage to ask U.S. coach Jürgen Klinsmann, through his agent, if he could attend the senior prom at his old high school back in Hershey the night before a friendly against Bolivia. “It sounded like a high school party or something,” says Klinsmann, a former German national-team star unfamiliar with the concept of prom. He checked with his American wife, who stressed how important it was for any teen to experience this rite of passage. So Pulisic used the money from a Panini sponsorship deal to rent a private jet from Kansas City to Pennsylvania. He posed for pictures, returned the next morning, and by evening, Pulisic was the youngest goal scorer in U.S. national-team history.
That team, however, failed to make the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Although Pulisic could anticipate many more World Cup chances in his future, he felt devastated. “Not a single person in my school ever talked about European soccer,” says Pulisic. “It was like, ‘The World Cup’s coming up. We can support the USA.’ So for me, that was everything.” He tried to take lessons from the experience. “You learn patience, you learn that your time is going to come,” says Pulisic. “Life goes on.”
Shooting during a Serie A match between AC Milan and Cremonese on March 1, 2026 —Piero CRUCIATTI—AFP/Getty Images
His Chelsea days ended unevenly. Pulisic scored a key goal, for example, in the first leg of a Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid in 2021, but didn’t even start in the second leg or the final. Coaching changes and injuries kept him in and out of the lineup. “When people say that it wasn’t a successful time, it is interesting to me, because I feel like that’s how everyone’s career kind of goes,” says Pulisic. “It’s not just constantly soaring up.”
In his Milan debut, Pulisic rocketed a shot at the top of the 18-yard box right inside the post, in a 2-0 victory over Bologna. “I didn’t do so much thinking and listening to all types of instruction,” says Pulisic. “I was just like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna go play.’” He has delivered in AC Milan’s matchups against heated rival Inter Milan, scoring within 10 minutes in a 2-1 victory over Inter in September 2024, which stopped a six-game derby losing streak for the Rossoneri (“Red and Blacks”). At the 2024–2025 Italian Super Cup final, in Saudi Arabia, he scored the equalizer in Milan’s 3-2 comeback victory. “You could just feel it was all Christian pulling the team back,” says Messina. Over the past three seasons, Pulisic has the third most involvements in all of Serie A (51, with 31 goals, 20 assists).
Celebrating after winning the Champions League Trophy with Chelsea on May 29, 2021, in Porto, Portugal —Chris Lee—Chelsea FC/Getty Images
Meanwhile, back in the U.S. last June, Pulisic became embroiled in controversy. To rest his weary body after a long season, Pulisic skipped the Gold Cup tournament with the national team. Former U.S. star Landon Donovan said on FOX Sports that vacationing U.S. players were “pissing me off.” Pulisic said he wanted to play in the pre–Gold Cup friendlies with the national team, but Pochettino, the U.S. coach, opted to keep the summer roster consistent. Pulisic said on a podcast that he respected the decision, but “didn’t understand” it. “That time was difficult for me, because normally I can shut people up with my play,” says Pulisic. “That’s what I’ve done my whole career. I’m in my offseason, so like people are just talking about me, and I can’t just go freaking score and shut them up.”
—Alex F Webb for TIME
Pulisic does not submit to many interviews. In a rare reflective moment at the Milan golf club, he admits that he struggles with work-life balance. “I have a very specific way of thinking about performance, and I’ve always wanted to be closer to the training ground, because that’s my work, and that’s what I do every single day,” says Pulisic. “It’s helped me in a lot of ways. It has also made me miserable at times.”
Mark insisted that Pulisic live near a golf course in Milan, so he’d have easy access to a recreational outlet offering a mental break from soccer. Pulisic also plays online chess with pals. A 2024 Paramount+ docuseries on Pulisic spotlighted his relationship with pro golfer Alexa Melton. But as of our February meeting, the pair had broken up. “I only look at her in the most positive way,” says Pulisic. “She was a lot of fun, and she supported me in every way. She wanted to push me to enjoy my life a little bit more and do things with her and do things just in general. And I was grateful for that.” He declines to go any deeper on the source of the split.
—Alex F Webb for TIME
“He’s saving them all up for the World Cup,” jokes Pulisic’s longtime U.S. teammate Weston McKennie, who plays for the Italian club Juventus, another traditional Serie A power. McKennie, for the record, includes both Pulisic and himself in the world top-100 rankings. “He just tells me, ‘Man, I just feel like whenever I’ve been in this moment in my life, there’s just something big that happens. I feel like something big is going to happen for us,’” says McKennie. “I don’t think any of us are worried whether he’s going to be firing on all cylinders. Because at the end of the day, he always wants to do his best for us, for him, for the fans, for the country. It may not be clicking for him right now. But I have no doubt it will be at the World Cup.”
Most of the people I spoke to, including Pulisic himself, repeated the same thing. No amount of outside pressure will exceed whatever Pulisic puts on himself. Three days before our first interview, across town from where he’s sitting, the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team won its first gold medal since 1980, in an overtime classic against Canada. That game inspired him. So can the Americans actually win a World Cup too?
Production: Courage Studio; Groomer: Alessia Bonotto; Wardrobe: Fabiana Guigli
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