Christian Pulisic’s development has drawn a lot of attention over the past year or so and Borussia Dortmund is hoping to take advantage of that attention by making inroads into the United States.
Borussia Dortmund’s marketing chief Carsten Cramer told Spox that he believes Pulisic has the potential to be ” a global superstar” that could help the club’s push into the American eye. The 18-year-old winger signed a new deal with the club in January and has started 18 matches in his first full season with the senior team.
“Christian Pulisic has the potential to become a global superstar by American standards,” Cramer told Spox. “In the USA, there has been no comparable player. It is a gigantic driving force for us, comparable to the relevance of Shinji Kagawa in Japan. The difference is that Japan has a bigger football history, but, in the USA, the market is again significantly larger.”
Cramer says there’s still a lot of work to be done when it comes to pushing into the U.S. eye. Like many European clubs, Dortmund could travel to the U.S. for high-profile preseason matches, putting them in the public eye across the country.
“It’s about how,” Cramer said. “How do we get up there? How do we get there? We certainly will not be like Real Madrid to get a stadium ready for 90,000 spectators right away. We are just trying to build cooperations in the style of ‘grassroots initiatives’ with different clubs. We also ask ourselves whether it does not make sense to go not only to the East, but also to the West of the USA.
“There is, above all, the Hispanic part that gives football a higher affinity than on the east coast. The massive increase in digital reach and merchandising sales also play a role. With Evonik and Puma, we have two partners who are also interested in this market. We extend different sensors with the aim of setting a foundation there.”