By Mike Woitalla
Mark Twain once joked that: “A gifted person ought to learn English in 30 hours, French in 30 days and German in 30 years.”
All themore impressive then that 17-year-old Pennsylvanian Christian Pulisic mastered fluent German within a year of joining Borussia Dortmund.
After becoming the youngest Americanto debut in a major European league, and the eighth youngest Bundesligadebutant in history, Pulisic handled his Jan. 30 postgame interview in near flawless German.
“Christian learned German very fast and is deeply respected by his teammates,” Dortmund’s U-19 head coach Hannes Wolf said lastyear when he predicted correctly that Pulisic was on the fast track to the first team of the Bundesliga’s second-place club.
Youngest U.S. Teen Debuts(Major European Leagues)
1. Christian Pulisic (17 years, 3 months), Bor. Dortmund/GER
2. Freddy Adu (18 years, 3 months), Sporting/POR
3. *Neven Subotic (18 years, 5 months), Mainz/GER
4. Rubio Rubin (18 years, 5 months), FC Utrecht/NED
5. Jonathan Spector (18 years, 5months), Man. United/ENG
6. Michael Bradley (18 years, 7 months), Heerenveen/NED
7. Jozy Altidore (18 years, 9 months), Villarreal/SPA
8. BryanArguez (19 years), Eintracht Frankfurt/GER
9. Julian Green (19 years, 3 months), Hamburg/GER
10. Johann Smith (19 years, 6 months), BoltonWanderers/ENG
*Later switched allegiance to Serbia.
On Sunday, Pulisic played in his fourth Bundesliga game and got his first start, playing the first 45 minutes of a 1-0 winover Bayer Leverkusen. The previous Thursday, he came on as a late sub in Dortmund’s 2-0 Europa League win over Porto, making him the youngest American to play in a UEFA competition.
Pulisic, who played for theUSA at last year’s U-17 World Cup, came out of a soccer family. Both of his parents played college ball at George Mason University. His father, Mark, who later played eightyears of pro indoor ball for the Harrisburg Heat, was a forward. His mother, Kelley, was a defender.
“It wasn’t us pushing Christian to soccer,” says MarkPulisic. “We played a variety of sports. We threw the football. We played baseball. We played catch. Of course, I threw the soccer ball out because I played. We were very careful to have himdecide what path to take. And he gravitated toward soccer.”
In fact, Christian was infatuated with soccer from a very young age.
“When he was 5 or 6, he was always lured tothe TV to watch soccer,” said Mark. “He was watching full games, not just clips. That’s a big part of the learning process that Americans don’t do enough. He really had a bug forit.”
Mark Pulisic, who coached Christian with the PA Classics up to the time that he went abroad, moved to Dortmund with his son on the club’s recommendation and serves anassistant coach on Dortmund’s U-10 team.
“It was a good move because he is still a kid,” Mark said in December. “You get homesick, you’re learning a new language,a new culture. We battled through it together.”
Steve Klein, the PA Classics coaching director and a family friend of the Pulisics, isn’t surprised that Christianis adjusting so well.
“He’s very bright,” Klein said. “He’s also very serious. When he was going to the national team program at U-14 and U-15, he was just so driven. Hewanted be a pro player. He wanted to play in Europe. So it doesn’t surprise me. He and his dad are smart people. They know you want to get into the culture and the quicker you learn the languagethe better. The best way to acclimatize is to dive in.”
Klein said that Christian’s talent was obvious from when he was very young: “When he was 6 or 7 playing with9-year-olds – the technical ability with both feet and the instincts, the vision for the through pass …”
At age 13, after playing against Tab Ramos’ NJSA 04, Ramos recommended Christian to then-U.S. U-14 national team coachManny Schellscheidt. It was Christian’s attitude when he gained national recognition that especially impressed Klein.
“Lot of kids who are 14, 15, 16 and havingsuccess with youth national teams, lots of times they develop an ego very quickly that sometimes can derail them,” Klein said. “What really sticks out to me is that about Christian ishe’s been able to stay very humble and realize he’s got a lot to achieve yet. Everyone around him knew he was having a lot of success, but it never seemed to affect him and change how hewas.”
Most of all the kid has passion and is fully dedicated to achieve his dream. That’s the first recipe for success. Without that passion achievements and goals are limited.
bestimmt gut!