Pulisic’s Transfer to Chelsea: The Dortmund Perspective

This was coming, but we won’t really know how things will go until the summer. 

The biggest soccer news on these shores this week is Christian Pulisic’s transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea for $74 million. We’ve been reading what it means for US Soccer, but what of what it means to Borussia Dortmund. 

First off, Pulisic remains at the Signal Iduna for the remainder of the season as he is technically on loan from Chelsea. Second, it’s been always a matter of when, not if, Pulisic would be sold one day. That day was hastened as Pulisic fell behind Jadon Sancho in the depth chart. It was because of that that Die Welt hailed the transfer as “the perfect deal”.

German newspaper Bild called the deal as on the ‘border of crazy’ as they said that BVB once again profited from the ‘irrationality’ of the Premier League like how they sold Pierre-Eric Aubameyang to Arsenal for £56 million in 2017. 

We won’t really get to see how this all plays out until the Summer when BVB will have $74 million to work with to strengthen their squad and contend not just for the Bundesliga, but for European glory as well. They used the transfer money from Aubameyang (and Ousmane Dembele) to pick up players like Paco Alcacer, Thomas Delaney, Abdou Diallo, Jacob Brunn Larsen, and….Jadon Sancho among others. 

We thought we would see the day where America’s current best player would leave Borussia Dortmund and for a hefty sum (though few could have predicted how hefty the sum turned out to be). That day was hurried along by the emergence of Jadon Sancho and we won’t really know until the summer how all of this plays out as Pulisic—on loan from Chelsea—is still at the Signal Iduna and looks to help BVB towards some trophies.