Chelsea star Christian Pulisic has revealed he’ll be forever grateful to Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp for introducing him to the first-team environment at Borussia Dortmund.
Pulisic joined Dortmund as a 16-year-old in February 2015, shortly before Klopp ended his seven-year stay at the club and he was given a first taste of first team training under Klopp.
“The craziest thing is people don’t realise I started out in the youth teams over there. I was just working hard for that one opportunity I could get,” the 21-year-old told the 13&Me Podcast, hosted by the former USA international Jermaine Jones.
“I was going to German school over there and I will never forget that one day I was in class and I looked at my phone and it was a text from my youth coach saying you are training with the first team tonight. “The rest of the day I wasn’t even paying attention. I couldn’t think of anything else.
“I’m getting ready, going to training and it’s just unreal I was 16 or 17 and I’m going in the warm-up and there’s huge names at the time. There’s Aubameyang, Marco Reus, Matts Hummels, Mkhitaryan. All these guys and they were just in the Champions League final the year before.
“It’s like I’m going in and I’m just this 16-year-old kid. I was thinking just do my best. I was just so excited and I’m just thankful to Jurgen Klopp that he gave me that opportunity.
“I’ll take that with me forever and I’m really grateful.”