Christian Pulisic came on at the break as AC Milan fell 2-1 to Cagliari at the San Siro, a defeat that left the club fifth and excluded from the Champions League for a second consecutive season.
The 27-year-old had been on the bench for Milan’s last three Serie A fixtures and entered the final match at 46 minutes after Alexis Saelemaekers’ second-minute strike had put Milan ahead. Cagliari recovered and left the San Siro with the win that confirmed Milan’s league place — and Pulisic’s season statistics.
Pulisic started the campaign strongly, scoring 10 goals in all competitions before the turn of the calendar year, but he went scoreless in the second half of the season and finished with four assists. His last goal for Milan came on December 28 in a 3-0 win over Verona. Since then his club minutes were limited: he played 31 minutes against Sassuolo, missed the Atalanta defeat with a glute muscle strain, and managed 14 minutes against Genoa, a brief outing in which he registered an assist.
On the international stage, the drought extended. Pulisic’s last goal for the USMNT came in November 2024 in a 4-2 win over Jamaica, and he has gone eight games without a goal for his country, leaving his international tally at 32 goals. He started both March 2026 World Cup tuneups against Belgium and Portugal, and said plainly, "Obviously, we’re disappointed with the results [against Belgium and Portugal]." He added hope alongside frustration: "If I finish a couple chances, which I know I’m going to, things are going to be different... But I feel like we’re right in the game, and I feel good things are coming."
That tension — a player capable of Champions League-level production who has not scored since late December — is where the season ends and questions begin. Milan’s manager has said Pulisic was sacrificed positionally, battled injuries and had not always been on the same page as Rafael Leao, and the benching in the final weeks underscored a season in which form and fitness never fully aligned.
Off the field, Pulisic faced a separate controversy over a goal celebration for the United States. He denied the moment was political, saying, "It was just a dance that everyone’s doing" and "He’s the one who created it. I just thought it was funny." The former U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard pushed back publicly, saying, "I don’t buy that [it wasn’t political]," a blunt counterpoint that left the dispute unresolved and added public friction to a difficult campaign.
Pulisic leaves Milan with measured counting numbers and a string of soft edges: 10 goals, four assists, limited minutes late in the campaign and a goalless run for club and country that stretches back to December and November, respectively. He said simply, "things are going to be different." That is the promise — and the challenge. For a player once seen as a guaranteed source of goals, the coming weeks will be about turning those words into finishing chances, for both AC Milan and the USMNT as attention pivots toward the 2026 World Cup.
