Borussia Dortmund is a special club, for many reasons, one of which is putting Christian Pulisic, the face of American soccer, on the map. They also propelled Jurgen Klopp, one of the most interesting and compelling figures in all of world football/soccer to superstardom, before he assumed managerial duties at Liverpool FC.
Many believe it’s only a matter of time before the German takes the reigns of their peerless national team. Dortmund is synonymous with buying low and selling high when it comes to top tier talent in the transfer market.
They acquire/develop the best up-and-coming young prospects, facilitate their growth, and then turn a nice profit when they let them go to the biggest clubs. Pulisic gave a special message to Klopp while appearing on the 13&Me Podcast, hosted by former USMNT star Jermaine Jones.
Pulisic joined Dortmund’s youth system in February of 2015. Klopp stepped down that spring, and went on to Liverpool that October. He was responsible for giving Pulisic his senior team debut in all of football. The Hershey, Pennsylvania native is forever grateful.
“The craziest thing is people don’t realise I started out in the youth teams over there. I was just working hard for that one opportunity I could get,” the 21-year-old Chelsea winger said.
“I was going to German school over there and I will never forget that one day I was in class and I looked at my phone and it was a text from my youth coach saying you are training with the first team tonight.”
“The rest of the day I wasn’t even paying attention. I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“I’m getting ready, going to training and it’s just unreal I was 16 or 17 and I’m going in the warm-up and there’s huge names at the time. There’s Aubameyang, Marco Reus, Matts Hummels, Mkhitaryan.”
“All these guys and they were just in the Champions League final the year before.”
“It’s like I’m going in and I’m just this 16-year-old kid. I was thinking just do my best. I was just so excited and I’m just thankful to Jurgen Klopp that he gave me that opportunity.”
“I’ll take that with me forever and I’m really grateful.”
The Premier League is aiming for a restart in mid-June, but that hinges on a lot of issues that are yet to be resolved. Pulisic and Chelsea sit fourth in the table, clinging to that final UCL qualification slot. Klopp and Liverpool are just two wins away from ending their three decade league title drought.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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