Christian Pulisic wants to make it known that he’s coming to Stamford Bridge to be Christian Pulisic; and not to replace the departed Eden Hazard. Pulisic arrived from Borussia Dortmund in January on a $73 million (64m Euro) move, but was immediately loaned back to BVB, and thus joined the team a couple weeks ago, after helping to lead the United States to a runner-up finish in the Gold Cup.
Hazard finally got his long awaited move to Real Madrid, on a £130 million transaction, so as one really high-priced winger departs, another high-priced winger enters.
The 20-year-American isn’t inviting any analogies to the Belgian and former PFA Player of the Year Award winner.
“I’m not here to compare or anything,” Pulisic said to Sky Sports in Japan, ahead of Chelsea’s friendly against FC Barcelona tomorrow.
“Obviously Eden was amazing and he did so well for this club, as you could see last season and the whole time he’s been here. He was an incredible player (for Chelsea).”
“For me, it’s coming in as my own player, proving myself and doing the best I can to help this team.”
It’s easy to understand why Pulisic has, is and will continue to draw Hazard comps.
Just last month we had an exclusive with BVB club legend Patrick Owomoyela, where he said that he could see Pulisic one day stepping in and filling the void left by Hazard’s departure.
Two of his former managers at BVB, Jurgen Klopp and Lucien Favre, praised the Hershey, Pennsylvania native extensively on Friday night.
Meanwhile, his former club just completed their preseason tour of his home country, beating Liverpool 3-2 at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday night.
A key member of the Dortmund front office has hailed the increased American awareness of the club that Pulisic has helped inspire.
“It was great to have Christian, and he certainly opened doors and created an interest in the club in the U.S. – we see the door having been pushed wide open,” said Benedikt Scholz, the club’s head of international and new business.
“But that door is still open, and our task is now to keep it open.”
New Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is excited about the prospect of working with Pulisic, who made his Blues debut this past weekend in a friendly against Kawaski Frontale.
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 appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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