Hugo Pérez says MLS clubs overlooked Christian Pulisic
Hugo Perez, the manager of the El Salvador national team and former USMNT player, discovered Christian Pulisic’s talent at an early age.
Christian Pulisic has the potential to become one of the best players in the history of the United States and has been given the nickname ‘Captain America.’ It all started at a very young age when the Chelsea ace was playing for the United States U-14 national team and Hugo Pérez was in charge.
The now head coach of the El Salvador national team saw how creative, dynamic and talented Pulisic was which made him talk highly about his future at that time. “When I was working with the US U-14 national team, someone told me about a kid in Pennsylvania that was very talented and we decided to bring him in,” said Hugo Pérez during the podcast ‘In Soccer We Trust.’
“Pulisic was not playing at a high level for his age and talent, so we decided to bring him into the youth national team and he was one of the smallest players, physically. I saw his talent and I decided to surround him with bigger players so he could have the freedom to create and move around the pitch,” added Pérez.
Why Pulisic joined BVB
Pulisic began his professional career at Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund and he made his debut with the senior team in 2016 at age 17, scoring a goal and providing an assist in two friendlies. The 23-year-old chose to leave for Europe because teams in MLS were not impressed by him because of his physical attributes at that time.
“I was surprised that he left for Dortmund because I was in contact with several teams in MLS. I told them to keep an eye on Pulisic, but at that time they were not interested in him because of his physical aspect. The teams were looking for more athletic built young players and when we went to Europe to play in a couple of tournaments, Borussia Dortmund showed interest in signing him,” said Pérez.