With the U.S. men’s national team in the process of moving on from the Gregg Berhalter era, Christian Pulisic had positive words for the former coach — but pushed back on suggestions he’d played a part in Berhalter’s controversial rehiring.
AC Milan winger Pulisic is busy promoting his new docuseries on Paramount+ while he recovers from a calf injury he suffered on December 13. In a recent interview with GQ, he touched on the most fraught period of Berhalter’s reign, namely the events that led up to the coach’s reinstatement following the federation’s investigation into a domestic violence incident.
“That was a really tough situation,” Pulisic said about the fallout. “Is it the player’s decision to bring a coach back? No, no, not at all. So that’s why it’s kind of a crazy thing to say.”
During the interim period between Berhalter’s contract expiring at the end of 2022 and the announcement nearly six months later that he would return, Pulisic had publicly supported Berhalter, who took the team to the World Cup round of 16. After coming back, Berhalter lasted until the summer of 2024. He was then let go after a group stage exit for the USMNT at the Copa America.
Pulisic remains adamant his backing of Berhalter came from a desire to build on the momentum built up at the World Cup, rather than a wish to influence the decision-making process.
“(If) we are looking from our perspective, we had just put on some really great performances at the World Cup and thought we had really grown as a team,” Pulisic said. “So it did seem to us, at least from my perspective, and I know a lot of others’ perspectives, it was kind of unfair what had been going on.
Pulisic with Berhalter at the World Cup (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
“So it just kind of sucked at the time that that whole thing had to happen, because I think in any other normal world it would have just, it would have just continued. We wanted to keep growing.”
Asked if he believed that Berhalter was treated harshly during the entire ordeal, Pulisic said that more or less, he believed he was.
Right up until Berhalter was fired after a Copa America showing that included defeats to Panama and Uruguay, there was no doubting Pulisic’s closeness to the coach.
When Berhalter’s future with the national team was teetering, the often-reserved Pulisic spoke out against the criticism.
In a 2023 ESPN interview, Pulisic pointed to the team’s pair of Nations League titles and a Gold Cup win, saying he was puzzled by the extent of the anti-Berhalter sentiment. “Are there things that you can criticize here and there? Sure. And I think he’d agree with that, but it just seems a bit crazy to me,” he said.
However, the U.S. team regressed in the final months of Berhalter’s second cycle. The Copa America debacle wasn’t an outlier, it was the culmination of a negative trend.
In September, Mauricio Pochettino was hired with the brief to get things on track for a strong showing in 2026. As for Pulisic, his status in the team and form with Milan suggest no player is more important to the USMNT’s success moving forward.
While he believes there were many positives to take from the Qatar campaign that included draws with Wales and England, a victory over Iran, before a defeat to the Netherlands in the last 16, Pulisic said: “Honestly, that loss (to the Netherlands) just (gives) us that much hunger to go into the next one and try to win.”
Pulisic says the Netherlands loss has just made the USMNT want more at the home World Cup in 2026 (Elsa/Getty Images)
In the GQ interview, Pulisic was cautious when talking about new coach Pochettino, perhaps aware that whatever he said could make headlines. Asked about the vibe of Pochettino’s first national team camp, Pulisic was careful not to unintentionally disparage Berhalter, and instead, shined the light on his own process.
“When there’s a new coach in the building at all, everyone is slightly more in tune and has to impress a little more … That’s a really solid thing for a team because it gets everyone just that much more alert.”
At 26 Pulisic is at his peak as a footballer. He’s among Serie A’s best. As a celebrity, though, he is who he is. Success for his club, and making history with his country in two years, are important objectives, but Pulisic has a much larger goal that he’s chasing. “I want to grow the sport in America. And everything that comes with it, I’m blessed.
“I’m extremely lucky. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But (fame) can be extremely hard for me. I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there that would probably feel the same way.”
Either way, if 2026 goes the way the U.S. wants it to, there could be a lot more fame coming.
(Top photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
