Christian Pulisic’s Milan renewal still has to be resolved, and Sky reporter Peppe Di Stefano believes Gerry Cardinale himself has a personal interest in getting it done.
This one matters because Pulisic has been Milan’s most reliable attacker since he arrived from Chelsea in 2023, and yet his future has quietly become a talking point. A poor second half of last season, followed by a home World Cup with the USA that fell flat, has left questions where there shouldn’t be any. Add in an ownership group that sees commercial value in an American star fronting an American-owned club, and the contract situation carries more layers than a normal renewal.
Speaking to Radio Rossonera (via MilanNews), Di Stefano tied the two threads together. “I expect the Pulisic of two years ago. I think he’ll stay at Milan. Cardinale is American and I think he wants an American symbol,” he said. He pointed to the numbers behind the argument: double figures in each of Pulisic’s first two seasons, before last year’s drop-off in goals, fitness and rhythm.
Di Stefano also made a tactical case for why Pulisic fits what Milan are building. In a 3-4-2-1, he argued, the two players behind the striker shouldn’t be orthodox wingers but forwards comfortable playing with their backs to goal, between the lines, almost as second strikers. In his view Leão doesn’t suit that brief because he’s a natural winger, while Pulisic does, alongside Nkunku, Saelemaekers and Rabiot when needed.
The complication is twofold. There’s the contract itself, still unresolved, and there’s the fitness record. “In the last 12 months he’s been very often injured, but it’s difficult to find a player with Pulisic’s value,” Di Stefano said. That’s the crux of it, and the injury worry is immediate rather than abstract, with Pulisic in danger of missing the start of the season because of a hairline fracture in his leg.
The gap between the player Milan want to tie down and the player who limped out of last season is real. But if ownership genuinely views him as a marketing face as much as a footballer, the renewal has a push behind it that most negotiations don’t. For now it’s over to Cardinale and the player’s camp to turn intention into signatures.