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Christian Pulisic Says Expectations Americans Put on Him Can Be 'Too Much'

Christian Pulisic has admitted that the pressure on his shoulders when playing for the U.S. national team has been occasionally overwhelming.
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Christian Pulisic has admitted that the pressure on his shoulders when playing for the U.S. national team has been occasionally overwhelming.

The 19-year-old has emerged as his nation's most talented player, and has been given little choice but to accept his status as a match-winner.

However after the disappointment of the USA's failure to qualify for this summer's FIFA World Cup, Pulisic has revealed that he has felt the burden of fans' expectations.

"I would say that the expectations some Americans put on me is too much," he said in an interview with ESPN. "But I don't take it that way. I know no one means harm to me or wants to put too much pressure on me. It's kind of what they've done or do in the past. A lot of countries do."

Pulisic was visibly upset by his country's World Cup failure, but he has insisted that the experience will help him improve as a player.

"It'll never really go away," he said. "I don't think [the hurt] is ever going to completely go away until I'm in a World Cup.

"It took me some time, but I moved on, of course, and I think that's really important. If anything, it's given me a bigger platform to just focus on at club level and do what I can here, without that in my brain."

On the future of the national team, the Borussia Dortmund winger added: "It's not about completely restarting. It's not like we have everything wrong or we panic.

"It's about developing what we already have into even better. I think if we continue to do that then of course players will come up and there will be new talents. If we build on what we already have, we can really create something."