As the transfer window slammed shut last week, one takeaway seems to be unresolved: New York City wants Christian Pulisic. That much has been confirmed by their own club president, Brad Sims, who admitted, "I'm pretty sure you'd get 29 yesses" if you asked every other MLS club whether they'd take him too. The problem, for now, is that AC Milan don't want to sell. It leaves one of American soccer's most significant transfer sagas stuck in limbo, but the questions it raises about Pulisic's next move, and what it would mean for his career, aren't going anywhere.
AC Milan’s new manager Ruben Amorim has yet to play Pulisic this season despite their best attacking player, Rafael Leão, leaving during the transfer window. Pulisic suffered an injury during the World Cup, but seems to be ready to rejoin active duty. Ruben Amorim had him dressed, but he did not come off the bench in games versus Venezia and Torino. "He has great talent,” Amorim said. “I simply have to manage my players' workloads, and at this moment we need to win. So it is difficult for Pulisic to find space, but he remains a hugely important player for us."
Not very reassuring. Last season under manager Max Allegri told two very different stories. He scored 10 goals in his first 15 appearances, then went 19 straight games without one after December 28. The kind of collapse that invites doubt rather than confidence heading into a contract that runs only through June 2027, with a club option for one further year. Pulisic being out of form may have cost AC Milan a chance at Champions League as they finished just 1 point behind Como for the final Serie A spot. It may have also been one of the biggest reasons Allegri was dismissed.
His World Cup this summer did little to settle those doubts either: a calf injury cost him the group-stage game against Australia, before a bone bruise and microfracture forced him off in the 59th minute of the USA's round-of-16 exit to Belgium. Another injury-hit campaign wouldn't just make Milan think twice about handing him a new deal; it would make any other Champions League-calibre club think twice about taking a chance on him at all. If Pulisic doesn’t get back into the starting eleven and regain the form he had in the first half of last season, by January his mindset could very well earn a change of scenery.
The Case for New York
New York City FC's pitch isn't just sentimental. The club is preparing to move into its new 25,000-seat home, Etihad Park in Queens, with an opening date set for July 17, 2027. It’s timed to the start of a season that will also mark MLS's shift to a fall-to-spring calendar, aligning the league with Europe's major leagues for the first time.
Practically, that change would spare a player like Pulisic the toughest part of his current schedule: being pulled into a taxing MLS campaign during the peak of the international summer rather than resting and preparing for tournaments the way his European counterparts do. Reports in Italy have suggested New York were prepared to offer as much as $11 million a season on a five-year deal. It was turned down not because the money wasn't there, but because Milan simply refused to sell this summer. MLS commissioner Don Garber went out of his way to make the league's own case publicly, saying simply, "I hope that they could sign a Christian Pulisic."
Part of what elevated Landon Donovan into American soccer's defining figure wasn't just what he won; it was his decision to build his prime years at home, lending his profile to growing MLS and the domestic game rather than chasing out a longer European career. It's not a new idea for Pulisic specifically, either: when he first left Chelsea for Milan back in 2023, Donovan was already suggesting he'd have been better off following Lionel Messi's path back to MLS instead.
Pulisic, at 27, is faced with a version of that same choice now, at a moment when he's still comfortably within his athletic peak rather than winding down. A move to New York sooner rather than in his mid-30s would let him do in New York what Donovan did in Los Angeles: not just play out a lucrative victory lap, but actually shape the league and the sport's next chapter in the country.
"You're alone, you miss things, you miss family. You can really bring yourself down to terrible states."Mark Pulisic about his son's isolation
There’s also a chance Pulisic is getting homesick. His dad, Mark Pulisic, has been on record talking about his son’s isolation. With all the pressure he puts on himself, even his father sounds concerned. “When you close that door at night and you're alone, you miss things, you miss family. You can really bring yourself down to terrible states. We just had to make sure we helped manage that."
It's an indication that there’s a real need for the American star to return to his roots, and as it turns out, his father was born and grew up on Long Island, less than an hour from New York City FC’s new home in Queens. Pulisic grew up in Hershey, PA, also a stone’s throw away from Queens. A move to the tri-state area may be just what he needs.
Whatever happens next, Pulisic already leaves Europe with a genuinely rare résumé for an American player: a Champions League winner's medal and a Club World Cup title from his Chelsea years, a DFB-Pokal from his breakthrough seasons at Dortmund, and a Supercoppa Italiana with Milan. He and Milan may have lost last season's Coppa Italia final to Bologna, and a league title has eluded him everywhere he's played, but no one would say he didn’t contribute to the success of cup-winning teams. If this is the season he finally closes that gap, he'd have every argument for leaving Europe on his own terms rather than being nudged out by injuries and inconsistent form, and New York City, stadium keys in hand, would be waiting.
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