AC Milan's Christian Pulisic spoke exclusively to GOAL. During the interview, the matter of being the occasional villain (for example after his goal against Lazio earlier this season) was brought uo.
Here's what he had to say:
"I don't think it's a matter of me wanting or not wanting to be a villain; I think it's just the way I am. It doesn't seem like I'm interested in that but, under the layers, even though I may not be the most outgoing person, I'm one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet. I love competing. If that means that everyone's gonna hate me and want to fight me, that's fine with me. I'm never gonna shy away. I'm never gonna step down from challenges or be scared in any way. I think that's the most important thing to me."
Pulisic added:
"I embrace these moments. It was cool watching that episode [of the documentary] and watching that back. It was cool to see. I did have some really interesting experiences, and that was a new one. Being in that villain role is a newer thing to me. It was so funny to be but, like I said, I love to compete, so bring on whatever you've got for me."
On dealing with pressure:
"I think with time, and with experience as well, it's definitely gotten easier in a lot of ways. I'm used to it now. I don't put as much pressure on myself. It doesn't weigh on me or make me feel like it's some burden that I need to have because I am who I am in the soccer world. I don't feel that I need to carry some kind of weight to show people that I need to be a certain way all the time. I don't really feel that. I'm pretty, pretty calm. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at and where I've come in life."
"I just hope people can watch it and see like 'OK, this guy is going through similar things that I'm going through,' whether that's on a different scale or in a different location or a different job," he says. "I want them to say, 'He's going through the same battles that a lot of people are out there.' I hope that I can show my ways of overcoming it, my support system, the people in my life who matter to me, and how they've helped me through it. I haven't done this alone at all."
"If people can see that - and I mean this for all of the people out there who are similar to me in a more introverted way - if they see how I deal with things and go about my life, maybe they'll learn a little bit more about me."
Pulisic on bringing friends and family to watch him:
"Those are the moments I look forward to the most, for sure. I love to show them around here, bring them to the games here. The San Siro? It's just amazing."
On being comfortable at Milan with latest reports speaking of a possible renewal:
"To be honest, it really started since coming here. With my faith in God, I feel like I'm in such a more peaceful place off the field, away from everything. I can say that pretty comfortably."
On his experience at Borussia Dortmund:
"It was the worst year of my life. Moving to Europe at 15, leaving everything behind and going through what I did, it was horrible. It really was a struggle at the beginning. I had to just see that out and decide if where I wanted to go in life was really worth what I was going through at that time. I always told myself that it was, so I'll just see it out. I just said, 'I'll keep going'."
On many calling Pulisic "world-class", Pulisic commented:
"It would probably surprise people how little I do care about that kind of stuff," he says. "Truthfully. What matters to me are my coaches and my teammates and then the people that I keep close in my life. To me, there's just no one else that I'm trying to please with the way that I play or the way that I live my life. So for me, I don't care about what people have to say from my past or whatever, or how they think I'm playing. It's just that that's not important to me. What's important is what directly affects me and how I can improve myself. Random people's opinions online? That'll never be important to me."
On the World Cup 2026:
"It's amazing, and I'm definitely excited, but it's just not something that's on my brain at the moment. Just with our schedule, we literally play every three or four days. It's crazy. I'll think about it in March when I'm back with the national team, and I'm super excited about getting a chance at another trophy. It's just that we have a lot of time and a lot of things can happen before that, so I'm just focusing on what I'm doing. That, the near future, it's all super exciting, too."
On his life and being a footballer:
"In some ways, it's changed for sure," he says. "This is the game that we love. I'll never stop saying how lucky I am to do this. It's what I've always been most passionate about. I loved playing soccer as a kid, and, to me, being able to be a pro is the best thing you can do. I have those moments where I still absolutely love it. It's still what I'm most passionate about. Of course, you go through moments where it does feel like your job, and I think that that's normal. You have tough times and you have great times."
On football, Pulisic said:
""I don't think soccer is my main - I think it's part of my purpose in life, but not my only purpose in life. I think when you look at it from that perspective and, of course, it's easy to say that when things are going well, but it's not like my whole life is just better now because I am playing better. It doesn't always go hand in hand like that, but it does make things easier. Everyone on the outside will think that things are great because you're scoring or winning, but it's not always like that. I still have my tough moments, even now, that I go through. Just because I'm scoring more, they think everything's great. But it's still life. Everyone battles, but I'm extremely comfortable, especially with my faith as well, with where I am now.
Pulisic concluded:
"I just hope some people can see all of this and relate to me and how I am," he says. "Maybe I can inspire some people as well. That's the goal of all of this, right?"
