Christian Pulisic has revealed he wants to play in the Olympics if the USMNT reach the tournament in Tokyo this summer.
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The USMNT U23 side are currently in CONCACAF Olympic qualifying in Mexico, and will find out early next week if they have qualified for their first Olympic tournament since 2008.
The complication for Pulisic, 22, and several other star players across the world, is that the Olympics in Tokyo is just before the domestic season will start in Europe so he is likely to be busy with preseason at Chelsea.
USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter admitted he would love to have a full-strength U.S. squad available, but believe it will be tough due to clubs not releasing players to play in a non-FIFA window.
Christian Pulisic reveals Olympic dream
Speaking to reporters on a conference call ahead of a friendly against Jamaica, Pulisic was asked if he would like to play in the Olympic tournament if the U.S. men’s national team make it to Tokyo this summer.
“The Olympics is of course a massive honor to play in and to represent your country in an Olympics would be amazing,” Pulisic said. “I am fully supporting the guys in qualifying now. It is something I’ve thought about and that I’ve wanted to play in. Obviously I can’t control exactly what goes on and what is best for me at the time and the team at the time, I can’t say. But it is something that I would like to play in.”
How likely will it be for Pulisic, other start USMNT youngsters, to play in Tokyo?
It wasn’t just Pulisic who revealed he wants to play in the Olympics. Yunus Musah, 18, is a rising star for the USA and after recently committing his future to the Stars and Stripes over England, Ghana and Italy, he’s all-in when it comes to the Olympics.
“I’m trying to my best for the U.S., whenever I am required to do so. If that means the Olympics too then I would be more than happy to play and be involved in it,” Musah said.
This was a very clear message from Pulisic and Musah that, if possible, they would love to represent Team USA this summer.
In the case of Pulisic, there are a lot of things which have to fall in place for this to happen but if the USMNT qualify and if Chelsea are happy to let him miss a part of preseason, Pulisic is clearly up for the challenge of trying to lead Team USA to a gold medal run in the men’s tournament.
Watch this space.