Christian Pulisic the only American in ‘top 150 players in the world’ as former coach reveals how street soccer helped to put USMNT ace on a path to superstardom

He said: “You could almost say definitively that Pulisic is the best player at Milan right now. I think injuries have curtailed his progress, and you want to knock on every piece of wood that you have right now, because he’s been able to perform consistently now at Milan. We’d have seen this a couple of years ago if his coaches had given him more of an opportunity.

“He’s had to get physically stronger and put in a lot of fitness and strength work, he’s had to grow immensely, both as a player, as a leader, and in terms of understanding his role, knowing when to dribble, when to pass, and then finishing. Not everybody can finish, and he’s become a fabulous finisher now. It’s really wonderful to see, and I love how it all started, because it started in a less-than-organised way.

“His development started when his mother took him to England at 7-9 years of age. She was instructing at a prep school, and he was just playing pick-up soccer. He wasn’t playing on any organised teams, they were just playing pick-up all over the place.

“Look at the five best attacking players of all time, and all of them have street soccer in their blood. That’s how they got it all started, and that’s one thing we lack. We’re still far behind the other countries, but if you had to rate the top 150 players in the world, there would be just one American: Pulisic.”