The time is now for returning Milan and USMNT star Christian Pulisic

Pulisic isn't a disappointment — it'd be churlish and unhelpful to frame his senior career in that light. But it's hard to argue against the notion that he's fallen behind his 2018 peers on the global circuit. With a new contract on offer at AC Milan, a new USMNT World Cup cycle beginning and a new and improved Pulisic emerging from an extended injury absence all happening in the same month, the time couldn't be better for him to make a statement on the field and rejoin the global elite.

Milan's knife-edge season

Milan's trajectory in the 2026-27 Serie A table hasn't been embarrassing, but it hasn't been stellar either. It finds itself exactly where it was last season: in fifth place, adrift of the league's best which, crucially, includes its local rival Inter Milan. The team is putting up results when it counts, but its top scorer is French defensive midfielder Adrien Rabiot, and that tells you everything to know about what its attack is (or rather isn't) doing on the field.

Pulisic's lingering injury from the 2026 World Cup kept him out of Milan's opening fixtures, but he's returning to full fitness just in time for his team to take on Inter in the season's first Derby della Madonnina. Pulisic's Milan enters the match on the back of two straight defeats — the first the 3-0 drubbing against Bournemouth orchestrated by Kluivert, the second an embarrassing 4-2 loss at home to Bologna — in which Pulisic himself played a negligible role. 

He's been Milan's derby difference-maker before. It was his solo strike that won Milan its first duel with Inter in November of last year, and it came in a similar juncture in his career: at the end of a long injury absence with Milan desperate to gain traction in the league. 

“Honestly, I think I can improve even more," Pulisic said after the result. "I don’t feel 100 percent sharp after coming back from an injury and some time out, but it just shows the resilience."

He'll need to show that resilience again if he wants to kick off his new Milan era with similar fireworks.

A changing USMNT

Pulisic's nickname is Captain America for a reason: He's been the face of the USMNT since his Kopa Trophy nomination back in 2018.

But will he be its face for much longer? If the team's fall friendlies are anything to go by, the answer is no.

Coach Mauricio Pochettino, eager to experiment in the first matches of his team's new World Cup cycle, fielded a slew of teenagers in the USMNT's fall matches against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada. That fresh-faced USMNT went 4-0-0 in those fixtures and garnered plenty of style points while doing it. 17-year-old wingers Mathis Albert and Cavan Sullivan earned most of them, trading off the honor of becoming the USMNT's youngest-ever goalscorer — a title they took from Pulisic himself.

The USMNT is set to regroup in November for competitive Nations League matches against Haiti, and Pochettino is likely to select a blended roster of World Cup veterans like Pulisic and young stars like Albert and Sullivan. Which begs the obvious question: Will the comparison against his youthful peer group burnish Pulisic's USMNT reputation or tarnish it? 

These are the kinds of things Pulisic will have to manage as he makes his return from injury this fall. If he wants to regain his footing within his global peer group, he'll need standout performances against teams like Inter and unquestioned national team dominance to make it happen. Pulisic was nominated for that Kopa trophy for a reason — but now, eight years on from the ceremony, he's found a crucial juncture to remind the world what it was.