Copa America 2016: Christian Pulisic has the weight of a nation on his young shoulders as USA expects

17-year-old Pulisic has already broken into the Borussia Dortmund first-team and has been tipped to surpass Landon Donovan as the greatest American to play the game

Christian Pulisic has the potential to be the star of the Copa America tournament (Getty)

Landon Donovan is the greatest footballer in American history and yet he was driven to self-deprecating humour by the achievements of the teenager who has been earmarked to surpass him.

Donovan was just 17, and too young, when he left home to sign for Bayer Leverkusen. He never scored for their first team in a competitive game. 10 years later he went on loan to Bayern Munich but did not score for them either.

So Donovan saw the funny side in April when Christian Pulisic, Borussia Dortmund’s young American midfielder, scored his first Bundesliga goal against Hamburg in the Westfalenstadion. “At 17 years old,” Donovan tweeted, “Christian already has more all-time Bundesliga goals (1) than me and Taylor Twellman combined.” That comparison is drawn every week, between the USA’s greatest player and their next big hope. Pulisic is half Donovan’s age.

Donovan led the US national team by example for more than a decade, retiring two years ago with 157 caps to his name and a record 57 goals. He starred for the US at three World Cups and was only controversially denied a fourth by Jurgen Klinsmann in 2014.

But this is the post-Donovan era now. On Friday the US will play Colombia in the opening game of the Copa America, which is being staged in the USA. Last year the Gold Cup was in the US too, and the hosts were knocked out of the semi-finals by Jamaica. Jurgen Klinsmann is under pressure and knows his team has to improve, although they are unlikely to get past the big South American favourites, Brazil, Argentina or Chile. Klinsmann has put his faith in the 17-year-old from Hershey, Pennsylvania.

There is a special clamour about Pulisic in the United States this summer, a genuine sense that they are about to see a footballer unlike anyone produced in America before. Certainly the US has had excellent players in recent years, but even Donovan, the best of them, starred in Major League Soccer rather than in Europe. Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey, still anchoring the national team, both in this Copa America squad, had very impressive careers in England but did not regularly challenge for the biggest prizes.

He is five years younger than Justin Bieber, and a fan of his music, and yet he has already broken into Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund team

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Pulisic could be different. He is five years younger than Justin Bieber, and a fan of his music, and yet he has already broken into Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund team, by any measure one of the best in Europe. This season he made 12 first-team appearances for Dortmund, four from the start, and scored twice. He has already made more of an impression in Germany than Donovan did at the same age, and is thought within the game to be a more effective and dangerous player now than Donovan was back then.

Of course, this is only the very start of a career that may last another 20 years. But if he makes it the US will have something it has never had before: a star of its own at the top of the European club game. The implications for Pulisic himself, and for football in the US, are enormous. He already has a lucrative deal with Nike, but if he continues to develop he will be a commercial sensation.

Landon Donovan has spoken glowingly of Pulisic (Getty)

Pulisic stands out for a set of skills – technical precision, imagination, awareness – which are more common to youngsters in Europe or Latin America than to the United States. That in part explains why he is so highly rated, for the capacity to offer the US team a dimension they have lacked in the past. But those skills have been developed for the last few years in Europe, and Pulisic’s story demonstrates why the big European clubs remain so attractive to young American players.

Hershey is a small town in Pennsylvania most famous for being the home of the Hershey Chocolate Company, and for calling itself ‘The Sweetest Place on Earth’. Christian Pulisic was born there in September 1998, and soon found as a young boy that he was better at soccer than most. His father Mark was a former player and coach of both college and professional teams in nearby Harrisburg. When Christian was old enough, Mark took him to ‘PA Classics’, the biggest and best children’s club in the state.

Tim Howard has been one of the leading American players plying their trade in Europe (Getty)

Steve Klein coached Pulisic at PA Classics and remembers just how good the boy was. “Christian was always a talented player, and was always at the top of his teams,” he told The Independent. “He is a very creative player, with excellent vision. He can use both feet extremely well and he has a very good change of pace. He was clearly at the top, along with a small handful of players we have had.”

Pulisic played some basketball until the age of 12 but he was such a natural footballer that there was only one sport for him to pursue. The family also knew that the best way for him to make it was not in the US – playing for a college or in MLS – but in Europe. When Pulisic was 14 he went on trial at Arsenal but as an American he could not get the legal permission to stay.

Back in the US, Pulisic joined the renowned residential program in Bradenton, Florida, which coaches the players in the US Under-17 team. Playing for the Under-17s in 2014 he was spotted by Borussia Dortmund who wanted to bring him into their academy. This time he could fulfill his ambition and go.

Pulisic has Croatian family, and fortunately for him Croatia joined the European Union in July 2013. This meant that when he applied for a Croatian passport, as he did with help from the Croatian Football Federation, he could then work in the EU. In January 2015 Dortmund signed the 16-year-old, bringing him into their U-17 team.

Clint Dempsey is in the United States squad for the Copa America (Getty)

Within one year of joining he was involved in Tuchel’s Dortmund first team, competing for places with Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. His speed and skill already mark him out as a Dortmund player and next season will be even better. Dortmund will be in the Champions League group stage and Pulisic, when he turns 18, will be able to drive and will not need his father to take him to training.

But before that there is the US national team. In March Pulisic became the youngest American to play a World Cup qualifier, also securing his future for the US, despite interest from Croatia. His experience in Germany has given him an edge over players older than him but who have only played in the US. The US will play Colombia at the Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, and can hold 75,000 people. The Westfalenstadion, though, is bigger, and Pulisic will not be daunted.