Ten years ago, Argentina’s Lionel Messi was so wounded by his penalty misfire in the Copa America final that he briefly retired from international football.
Back then, Messi was two years older than United States attacker Christian Pulisic right now.
And today, he’s a universally beloved national hero, a 2022 World Cup winner and, at age 39, still the most important player for a 2026 semifinalist.
No one is confusing Pulisic with the greatest footballer who ever roamed the Earth.
But when you zoom out, the unprecedented criticism the 27-year-old AC Milan star is receiving after the USMNT’s embarrassing 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16 resembles the turbulence Messi faced with his national team in his late 20s. And it suggests there is more time for the Hershey, Pa., native to rescue his image than the moment suggests.
Like Messi, Pulisic came of age during a time when his country’s fans were looking for someone to pick up the mantle carried by previous legends.
For Messi, it was Diego Maradona, the man who led Argentina to their second World Cup crown in 1986 and remained relevant through the 1994 cycle. For Pulisic, it’s Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, whose attacking partnership elevated the United States to a consistent knockout stage participant in the early part of this century. Donovan was even a breakout star on the 2002 team that reached the quarterfinals.
And like Messi, Pulisic’s introverted personality has been an awkward fit with the team leadership hoisted upon him, complete with the corporate visibility he has willingly accepted
When you listen to Donovan’s criticism of Pulisic’s camp, claiming they keep him at an unnecessary distance from the rest of the group, there are obvious echoes of the grievances against mid-2010s Messi, who by then had already achieved nearly everything possible in an FC Barcelona jersey, but hadn’t won a single major title for Argentina.
So we’d be foolish to discount a Pulisic second act, though he may face some obstacles that Messi hasn’t.
There’s his durability. Pulisic has now left three of his seven career World Cup starts before 90 minutes due to injury. In his club career, he is typically removed before full-time while Milan try to manage what has been described as a chronic hip issue.
It may also be difficult to find a coach as amenable to building a system around Pulisic’s strengths as Lionel Scaloni has catered to Messi since he took the job in 2018. It’s one thing to build an entire team around one of the world’s all-time greats. It would be something different to do so for someone who might not be his country’s most talented footballer by the time the 2030 World Cup rolls around.
But Pulisic also has advantages, mainly lower public standards. A return to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2002 would be rightly hailed as a success. Even similar competitive results could be laudable if the final defeats came against better sides than a Belgium squad in decline.
Messi is not only uniquely great, but also uniquely effective in the latest years of a great career. Pulisic’s career resurrection will have to come sooner than at age 34, when Messi first won Copa America.
But there will be chances before then, potentially at the 2028 Copa America and definitely at the 2030 World Cup. And the burden of expectation will almost certainly be lighter than this summer at a home World Cup.
