Original subtitles

You're watching "Pulisic"

presented by Michelob Ultra.

Pulisic!

US Soccer presents the United States vs Brazil.

I think when Christian was really young,

he excelled in like all the sports.

I mean, even five and six,

he was a really good soccer player

but, um, did I think he was gonna be professional?

I really tried to keep my head on my shoulders.

Even though he was a good athlete

and he did things really advanced,

I just was like, you know, it's such a small number,

But I never thought at a young age,

"Oh, he's definitely going to be a pro."

I just-- I knew in the back of my head

that he was a really good athlete, but,

you know, it's just-- it's not realistic.

For me, the moment that I look back on the most

was the Nike Friendlies Tournament.

We beat Brazil and I won the MVP of this tournament

with the US Youth National Team.

I saw Christian way back

when he played for the U-17s in a tournament in Florida.

Pulisic goes around the defender,

arm is being pulled, he still has it.

And yeah, it was a standout.

He's on side, left foot,

he'll pull it back, shot, goal!

Gallardo feeds it to Pulisic.

Christian was always younger.

I think he was a year younger than that group.

He was the smallest.

If you look back at video, you could see how tiny he was.

And the United States now has a 3-1 lead.

But all his hard work

of wanting to be that on the national team

and wanting to be the best player

kind of all came together at that tournament.

You could see that there's a talent coming through

that is special, that is different,

that is already on the field

against teams like England and Brazil.

He's already a difference maker.

So I decided to follow him a little bit

from that moment on.

The United States

is your Nike International Friendlies champions of 2013.

It's just amazing to be here right now.

Our team's been working so hard.

Everyone, every kid.

And today it all showed on the pitch

and we just outplayed them.

And I think we were the better squad.

And we got the W and won.

They upset Brazil in the final.

He was named Player of the Tournament.

And that tournament meant a lot to him.

And talking to him after that game,

I mean, there was no stopping him

on the professional path.

You know, some of the best players in the world,

at that age group were playing.

I think that was the moment where I thought,

"I want to be a pro for sure."

I know that if I-- if I do the right things,

that I can do it.

It's funny, I have a tattoo dated on my arm.

2013.

Yeah. Kids, don't get tattoos.

I was living in Barcelona and my company was based there

and my American talent scouts called us up and said,

"There's this representative team of American players

"that are currently in Barcelona

"playing some matches against some clubs

"and they're gonna be playing

"against FC Barcelona tomorrow night.

"You need to go and watch this kid play.

He's good."

So I said to one of my staff,

"Will you go watch the game

and tell me what you think tomorrow?"

And he comes back into the office the next day

and I said, "How did he play?"

"Best player on the field."

I said, "On the field?"

They played Barcelona.

Full strength team of that age group.

Best player on the field.

Interesting.

I remember having coffee with Mark

and I said to Mark, "Mark, I love Barcelona.

"I'm based here.

"Wow, I would love nothing better

"than to see your son play first team of FC Barcelona,

but my advice is probably to look elsewhere."

"Yeah, but you know, we'd love to go to England."

"Yeah, but to be honest,

no work permit, he's under 16, etc., etc."

"It's gonna be difficult.

Let me see who's interested."

Christian ended up going to Arsenal.

He was there for a week, doing very well,

but all I heard was, "Yeah, but he's got no passport."

There's actually no point in him training.

It was frustrating,

but I think it just confirmed to him

the abilities he possessed

and that he could take this now to another level.

So he just continued to pursue

and, sure enough, Dortmund came calling.

To go to a foreign country, it's difficult.

You're out of your comfort zone, no doubt.

You're forced to speak in a different language,

you're forced to figure out ways to be successful

and you're forced to grow.

Because soccer isn't innately American

at this point in time,

if you wanna go pro,

if you want to play for Milan,

you can't go to college,

you can't play in the NCAA.

You gotta do like Christian did.

Go to Europe.

If you see potential, go to Europe.

When I look at Christian Pulisic's situation,

it was the perfect moment for him

to go and grow as a person,

off the pitch, on the pitch,

to get the necessary training

that was needed for his ability at the time.

You know, even when I was only 13 or 14,

I spoke with my dad and he asked me

what it really is that I wanted to do.

And I always said I wanted to play

at the highest level in Europe.

That's what I want to do,

I want to become a professional there.

But if I'm being honest, when I was 13, 14,

and even still 15, I was thinking, I don't--

I don't think there's any way I could leave home right now.

I don't know if I was ready for it

'cause that year went so quickly.

And then we had to make decisions like, is this right?

Should he go? Should he stay?

And Mark and I, you know, we said,

you know, he can't go alone. He's too young.

Just didn't think it was the right thing to do.

And for us as a family,

you know, our daughter was in high school.

Like, you don't pull someone out of high school

and say, let's go again.

It was time for her to have her life as well.

So the best decision, decision for us was

for me to stay back and let her finish her year.

And Mark was going to Dortmund.

So that's when it got real.

And it just got real fast.

You okay?

Leaving my family, leaving my friends.

I just-- It seemed--

It seemed so scary to me,

and it didn't become any easier.

I was terrified. I was terrified to leave home.

I was scared, I didn't know if I was good enough.

I didn't know if I had a chance of making it pro.

I was scared that I would go do all this

and ruin my chances of maybe going to college

or doing normal student things and, you know,

shutting down a lot of options in my life.

And I remember the decision being incredibly hard.

Was it easy? No.

Was it terrible at times? Yes.

Were we sad? Were we crying?

Of course.

I mean, I'll tell you, that tape got thin,

that was holding us together, but it-- it did.

Even though he was very young at the time,

and even though those goodbyes were difficult,

he had a vision and he knew what he wanted to do.

But not everything went well.

I remember the first week

coming back from trainings

and just telling my dad,

"These kids don't like me, not one bit."

And it was the first time I experienced that,

because back in the US with my team,

I was the best player and everyone loves me

and have a great time at training.

And it's not guys making money at that age already.

And when you go into an environment like that, it's--

I don't want this guy to take my spot.

I was like, these kids won't pass me the ball

in training sessions.

They don't want to see me succeed.

That's how it really felt.

I don't know if I could've done it to be honest, I don't.

In order to play for the youth teams there,

he needed to be in school.

And the nearest school where all the academy players went

was just a German school.

Schooling in Germany is not so easy

because the language is, yeah, it's really difficult.

But there no possibility to go to school in Germany

without learning the language.

And just because you are very successful in sports,

you still have to be treated as a normal student here.

I hated every second of it, if I'm being honest.

I had no clue what classes I was in.

I was so confused.

I had to be at the training ground

to do an hour and a half of German lesson,

train with the team until 7:38 p.m.

and then I would go home, have a quick dinner,

go to sleep 'cause I had to be up at 7 or 8

to go to school the next day and it felt like,

"What am I doing this for?"

"Am I even gonna be able to play

and have a chance to become a professional here?"

So he wants to do all the things,

the normal program

and add on to learn the language.

That, for a young guy,

is a lot of stuff, I think.

Um, it was really impressive.

To make that move abroad into a foreign country,

you haven't got that infrastructure behind you

with family and friends,

different messages you're getting from coaches,

new teammates as well.

So, to make that move at such a young age,

I mean, that takes some doing.

That's not just about your ability,

that's about your mentality.

Christian going into first gear,

does he shit his pants or is it a smooth gear change?

No matter what kind of move you make,

it's always a big change.

- Nice. - That's not bad.

But now I'm sacrificing my high school years

of growing up in the States

with the friends that I knew my whole life.

Christian, navigating a roundabout.

Yeah, it's too easy.

Trying to learn another language,

not really understanding what's going on in training,

trying to adapt and improve yourself.

Yeah, into third gear, good transition.

There were some tough nights.

I mean, he moved to his first place in Dortmund

where we lived together

and we went and got a Nerf basketball hoop.

And every night he'd come back from training

and every night we would play like a HORSE game

on this little basketball Nerf hoop.

So we had many long talks at night,

just kind of, you know, seeing where he was, what he wanted.

And I said, "Look, if it doesn't work,

you're not enjoying it, we go home."

That was a... interesting thing to hear.

And I was, you know, he knew what that would do to me.

He said, "Go ahead, quit, let's go home." You know?

"You don't wanna be a professional? No problem."

And I, you know, that didn't sit right with me.

The last thing Christian wants to do is go home

and say, "Hey, it didn't work out."

It's just not his DNA.

He knew I could do it and I wanted to do it,

and I wasn't gonna let anything stop me.

The advantage of Dortmund is they will give young players

an opportunity at a young age.

And they're a big club.

You learn about pressure at a young age

in a town that only has a football team.

It's the greatest education you can have.

Dortmund is an amazing football city.

Everybody grows up with it in Borussia Dortmund.

I was born here, grew up here,

and when you grow up here, you cannot go around it.

It's 100% part of the life.

And it was a big honor to work for this club

for such a long time

as the youth coach in Borussia Dortmund.

And the job was to develop players

that can make it from Germany,

but even one of the USA.

Hannes Wolf was, I believe,

one of the major reasons Christian succeeded at Dortmund

and was given an opportunity to become a professional player.

He was that important to Christian.

I think it was important that Christian

and his family knew that we really wanted him.

It was my job to give everybody full attention.

But it's clear when you leave your country and your continent

with 15 years and you don't understand the language,

then it's completely clear

that you have to take care about him.

And it was a very, very special connection

from the very beginning.

Maybe other coaches would've said,

"Hey, Christian, sink or swim,"

um, but Hannes didn't do that.

They knew that we really wanted the best for him

in every moment, and not only for the team

and not only for winning the next game.

It was always to develop a player

who could make it to the top.

He knew Christian's personality and mentality,

that he was very hard on himself.

Hannes recognized that right away.

He was very ambitious.

And when you're ambitious

and something doesn't work like you want

because you don't score a goal or you miss a goal

or something happens, then it hurts.

With other players, it's completely different.

You have to push them and bring them into the intensity.

With Christian, I felt a difference.

It was really about taking the pressure out,

because wanting it was deeply inside of him.

Hannes pushed and would constantly speak

with Juürgen Klopp about Christian.

I told Juürgen on the pitch,

"I have a player, he will play on his 17th birthday."

"He will play with you."

And they were laughing a little bit because

they didn't know about him too much.

And it's not easy to play

in Borussia Dortmund when you're 17, so that was--

That was brave from me.

You know, to me,

that's a coach or a mentor,

really believing in a player.

I remember being in art class and looking at my phone

and I got a text from Hannes and he said,

"Hey, tonight you're training with the first team."

We had him in training and I described him once.

It was like in a comic.

So when all these people run together

and there's dust and stuff like this,

we all have probably the picture in our mind,

and in the end, one gets out

and looks completely untouched.

In this case, with a ball on his feet.

That was Christian.

I remember going in training with the first team

for the first time and speaking to Juürgen

and I mean, the way this guy treated me was--

I couldn't believe it.

The way he shook my hand and said hello

and felt like he knew exactly who I was, where I was from.

To me, that was a pretty incredible sign

and something that you don't even see a lot.

I just like the story,

this kind of Yugoslavian background

with a good attitude for the sport,

and that's the boy I saw.

But when you are manager of a team,

it's not that you have long, long, long conversations

with players they don't play yet.

They come to training, you look at that.

Um, and then I left pretty quickly.

Juürgen Klopp does take his final bow

at the Signal Iduna Park.

80,000-worth.

Coaches are important.

Because they give opportunities.

They are the gatekeepers in many ways to success of that club.

And when you're 16, you love the fact

that Juürgen Klopp is the club's manager.

But if you're honest with yourself,

the most important part of the decision is

what does this club stand for?

I think that Germany is...

is really exceptional in the way they evaluate talent

and they give talent playing time

very early in your career,

if you have the qualities

that you prove on the training ground.

And if you do that through our training sessions

week in, week out,

we have the approach in Germany that we say,

"You know what, let's throw him in the cold water

and let him swim."

So he starts in the youth academies at Dortmund

and I guess he immediately turns heads there.

And then at some point Dortmund is ready

to bring Christian Pulisic into their games.

But there is one major problem with that.

FIFA's Article 19.

The challenge was that he came at 15-years old.

When you're from European Union,

you are able to play at 16,

but when you're from America,

you can only play at 18-years old.

So when Christian talks about it was hard,

that's a part of it.

You come to another country,

to another continent to play football,

to make it, and then you cannot play.

You're healthy, you don't have an injury, but you cannot play.

Christian was only able to train

with the U-17 team at Dortmund.

Good touch.

When he went there, he was not permitted

to play games, even with the youth team.

Oh!

On the day when we played,

we organized the training with Mark and the Footbonaut.

The Footbonaut is a machine where you can train

with your first touch.

And I think Christian played 400 to 500 touches

on a matchday with Mark.

But that was tough for him

and we felt the responsibility

to make something good out of it, all the time.

It's a FIFA rule that,

honestly, is so detrimental

to the development of a young footballer

that it's just--

It's actually criminal that that rule is allowed to exist,

because I don't think in any other sport that rule exists.

I can only imagine, you know,

the stress from his family and the parents

to try and make this happen because

it's such an incredible opportunity.

But this is 2014, and it just so happens

that a year earlier, the country of Croatia

was accepted into the European Union.

Now, why does that matter?

It matters because Christian's grandfather

on his father's side, Matej Pulisic,

was born and raised on the tiny island of Olib in Croatia.

And because he is a citizen of that country,

that also means that Christian

is eligible for Croatian citizenship.

So now suddenly everybody gets creative

because there's a loophole.

My whole life, I've been Christian "Pool-ih-sick."

That's, I guess, the American pronunciation.

It is a Croatian last name, of course.

So my grandfather would never be mad

if anyone calls me Christian "Pool-ih-sitch."

My mom and dad passed away a few years ago,

and I know the pride that they both had.

I mean, my dad just--

He was just a huge, huge fan.

He loved Christian so much.

And when he used to see his name

on the back of Christian's jersey

when he was playing in Germany,

there would be tears in his eyes.

And I just knew what it meant to him.

And I know what it means to me when I see his name.

Christian was in a situation

where he needs a European passport,

and he can qualify for one through his grandfather.

The application was in the system,

but you need to get it over the line, right?

And that's where Dortmund came into the picture.

I know that Christian and his family know that

this one and a half, two years playing with the youth

were very important for his development.

And we knew that we have a very special kids with us

who cannot play.

So everyone we can call, we called.

Dortmund knew my father was born and raised in Croatia,

and the club obviously had some contacts in Croatia.

So we were able to utilize our name

and his address in Croatia to start the paperwork process.

And it was gonna take a long time.

But look, at the end of the day,

in this world, anything can get done, right?

You know, it's crazy that you have to figure out

these loopholes to get EU citizenship,

to go to an academy if you have the talent to do so.

From, from an American standpoint,

it's a massive disadvantage.

If he didn't go to Dortmund at 16

and he went to an MLS academy

or he was with an MLS team,

I don't think we would be seeing the Christian Pulisic

that we see today on the pitch.

Getting the Croatian passport,

that was the game changer.

I wouldn't have had a chance

to have been a part of the Dortmund first team

until I was 18, if I didn't have that passport.

So there's no way I would have been able

to be playing in Europe and I'd have been,

you know, two, three years behind.

Who knows if I would have even developed

or had a chance by then.

Coming on here for his debut

is the young American, Christian Pulisic.

I wanted to believe that there was something special

on the other side of that extremely difficult year.

I told myself every day that

this is-- this is all gonna be worth it.

You know, I think that that first year,

it doesn't change how I look back on it.

I still hated waking up every day

and having to go to that school

and having to go do the lessons and train and not playing.

It was-- It was extremely hard.

But I mean, looking back on it,

I'm just so blessed that I went through that

and that I stuck it out.

As a kid, I always learned that if you want to be the best,

you have to play against the best.

And I think that this is where it's at,

here in Europe right now.

And this is one of the best leagues in the world

and one of the best teams.

So it's just an honor to play here.

And it's always been my dream.

Okay, so your son goes to Europe.

Professional debut at 17,

scores a goal at 17 in front of 80,000 people.

Kagawa, Hummels, nice link up-- Pulisic!

Oh, yes, the youngster

and a startling day for the young American.

A star is born.

Holy shit.

Look at the crowd over there.

Go make a debut at 17 in front of that crowd,

as demanding and as passionate as that.

I mean, can you imagine the courage it takes?

That's not just about your ability,

that's about your mentality.

There's lots of players with talent,

but have you got the mentality to play

at the highest level in front of the,

you know, the biggest atmospheres?

And that for me, is what football's about.

Yeah, a special moment.

I'm extremely grateful for the club

and the way they put me through those difficult things,

you know, even when I didn't see it at the time,

because that's what shaped me into the person I am today,

into the player I am today.

There's Pulisic.

He sent a cross-- A sensational goal!

Ooh!

Christian Pulisic!

Almost can't believe it himsel.

I mean, I obviously just wouldn't be where I'm at

if I didn't have that start in those difficult times.

Pulisic, Pulisic...!

Goal!

A football career is difficult,

and it's massively influenced by injuries and stuff like that.

A great club educated a great boy,

so I knew he would make it.

A young academy player

making it as a men's professional,

the most difficult jump in football.

But he ended up with unbelievable experiences

of playing Champions League football at a young age,

playing in front of big audiences every home game.

Everything worked out so well.

But there came a point where both parties knew

that he was probably ready for the next step.

I'm sad, man. To be honest with you.

I respect him a lot for what he did, like--

A tough day for me.

The maturity to be able to, you know,

pursue something as serious as that, and--

Five years here, man, it's incredible.

Live out on your own, largely.

It's pretty crazy.

I think to say goodbye in a proper way...

is an important thing in life.

It was my first club, and...

the way they yell my name

and the way they supported me,

I'll obviously always have a lot of love for them.

They told me that they'd be giving me

a little bit of a goodbye and, um--

They said, "You know, if you want,

you can say a quick word to the fans."

And I said, "Absolutely."

I mean, it's the least I could do.

Christian...

Pulisic!

Christian...

Pulisic!

Christian...

Pulisic!

Smart boy.

Obviously, a confident boy.

And it helps,

if you want to speak in front of the Yellow Wall.

Confidence is a good thing to have

because it's quite intimidating when you stand there

and you look up to it.

Can you imagine that?

Your send off in front of the Yellow Wall,

one of the most iconic pieces of terrace in European football.

You're all alone,

speaking in a foreign language,

and see how emotional he was.

You could see the feeling between player and fans.

I mean, it was a touching moment for everybody.

I mean, you got to think about it.

This is a young kid in front of 83,000 people

saying goodbye to a club that this is the only thing

he's known for a number of years.

I was actually pretty nervous for that moment,

for some reason, you know,

I can play in front of 80, whatever, thousand,

but for some reason, when you get a mic in your hand

and you have to speak, it's a little bit different.

But, yeah, it was what I owed them.

Oh...

But I did not expect the wave of emotions to hit.

I didn't expect how I would feel in that moment.

You know, the respect from the fans,

I think, as a player is just so important.

And then to be able to address as a parent,

to see your kid address 80,000 people...

Sorry.

Yeah, he's speaking German, and fluently, too,

and thanking the crowd

for what they've given him to start his career.

It's just--

I couldn't have been more proud.

I don't know--

Yeah, it's one of the best moments so far, I think. Yeah.

Yeah.

Sorry.

♪ When you walk

♪ Through a storm

♪ Hold your hand up high

♪ And don't be afraid

♪ Of the dark

♪ Walk on through the wind

♪ Walk on through the rain

♪ For your dreams be tossed

♪ And blown

♪ Walk on, walk on

♪ With hope in your heart

♪ And you'll never

♪ Walk alone

♪ Alone

♪ You'll never

♪ Walk alone