An alumnus of the U. Soccer Development Academy , Pulisic began his professional career at Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund , where he progressed quickly through the team's youth academy , featuring in only 15 youth games. He was then promoted to the senior team in January , at age Pulisic played for the United States at under and under levels, before making his senior national team debut in March at age He is the youngest player ever to captain the United States national team in the modern era.
Individually, he is tied with Landon Donovan for the record of four U. Player of the Year awards and is his country's fifth-highest all-time leading goalscorer. He has been called the "face" of American soccer. Pulisic was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania , [ 23 ] where he spent the majority of his childhood. His parents, Kelley and Mark Pulisic , both played collegiate soccer at George Mason University and his father also played professional indoor soccer for the Harrisburg Heat in the s and later became a coach at the youth, collegiate, and professional levels.
While his mother was on a teacher exchange in England through the Fulbright Program , Pulisic lived for a year in Tackley , Oxfordshire. While in Michigan, he attended Workman Elementary School.
After the family returned to the Hershey area, Pulisic grew up playing for local U. In the summer of , he went on a five-day trial at Chelsea 's Cobham base. Pulisic moved to Germany before his 16th birthday. He became eligible because, as his grandfather was Croatian, he could get a European passport and play starting at age 16 rather than He initially had issues getting the passport, but it eventually panned out.
In February , Borussia Dortmund signed year-old Pulisic and assigned him first to their U17 squad and in summer to the U After scoring 10 goals and assisting eight in just 15 games with the Dortmund youth teams, [ 30 ] Pulisic was called to join the first team over winter break. In January , while with the first team in the winter break, Pulisic played the second half of two friendly matches, scoring one goal and assisting another.
