This is really something nobody set out to do. There was no “orchestrated plan,” there was no overall vision, as if sketched in some US Soccer boardroom. And it just kind of happened – and then you woke up one day to recognise that some American kids had quietly turned home for one of the world’s toughest football leagues.
Christian Pulisic at AC Milan. McKennie and Tim Weah at Juventus, Yunus Musah at Milan next to Pulisic, followed by Atalanta. The San Siro and the Allianz Stadium had a very American flavour to them for at least a period of time that Italian football won’t forget in a rush. With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, what these players absorbed in Italy feels more significant than ever.
Pulisic: The Game Changer
The impression in some quarters when Pulisic signed for Milan from Chelsea wasn’t a particularly positive one. Chelsea had not always made the most of him. Perhaps, the journey to Italy was an iffy one. Perhaps he would be exposed at the Serie A level.
It did the opposite. He became Milan’s best player. Pulisic scored 16 goals and provided 11 assists in 45 appearances throughout the entirety of the season in all competitions for a club-best tally, but his personal best tally at the club level. In three seasons at the San Siro, he’s added 95 appearances along with 31 goals and 32 assists. Earlier this season, NBC Sports pointed out that he is, quite frankly, putting himself on the path to being the best American male footballer ever. That isn’t hype anymore. That’s what the numbers say.
The thing about Pulisic is that none of it came easily. Tactical, physical and merciless; this is Serie A. Why would you pad your stats there? Each goal, assist and performance came in one of the most-watched leagues on Earth.
McKennie: Still There, Still Standing
The basic storyline of Weston McKennie’s time at Juventus is one that simply doesn’t get enough credit for all of its layers. He landed in Turin back in 2020 to become the first American Bianconero. And from that time on, everything was all bumpy.
Many managers didn’t even rank him. 2023 saw a loan spell at Leeds, which ended in relegation – not quite how things were supposed to go. There were summers in which the question, appropriately so, was not: how will McKennie do? But “will McKennie even stay?” And yet, season after season, a different manager would take over the team, then assess their squad and find a place for him. How naturally all-encompassing his energy and versatility are, how well he covers ground – those things were always too valuable to waste.
During 2024-25, he scored five goals and got three assists in 37 games in all competitions. Even more tellingly, Juventus acted to tie him down on a contract extension until 2030. He has since gone on to be the longest-serving outfield player at the Allianz Stadium. The Little Elm, Texas kid who had to scratch and claw for her spot every single year outlasted almost everybody else around him.
Weah: The Swiss Army Knife
Coming in from Lille in July 2023, Tim Weah was known one way and one way only – a winger, bona fide son of Ballon d’Or winner George Weah with pace and directness to burn since 2023. But at Juve, he became something else again: the squad player who could do anything, so he was asked to do everything.
Right wing-back. Left wing-back. Right-winger. Left winger. Central striker. Motta at one point described him as “providing different solutions” – another way of saying, in manager-speak, “he can play anywhere, and it’s fine.” And honestly? Weah made it work. He finished the season as Juve’s fourth-leading Serie A scorer, with five goals in 2024-25. Pretty good considering a player who spent parts of the campaign playing unfamiliar positions.
Then the summer of 2025 rolled around, and Weah made a sober choice. The World Cup loomed, and he needed games -real ones, not cameos during squad rotation. So he left for Marseille. No drama, no messy exit. A simple footballer who knew exactly what he needed at exactly the right time.
Musah: The Unfinished Story
Of the four, Yunus Musah’s time owning Milan is by far the most complicated. He signed from Valencia in the summer of 2023, also for €20 million – the same summer as Pulisic arrived -and while Pulisic became a club icon, Musah was stuck in the one trap all versatile central midfielders find themselves: so useful across too many positions to really own any single role.
Central midfielder. Defensive midfielder. Right wing-back. Attacking winger. During an 82-appearance period spanning across two seasons, he filled every role you could fathom. Managers believed in him and continued to select him. They just never had the faith in him to say, this is your place, every week without discussion. Come the summer of 2025, it made sense for everyone to part. Atalanta on loan was an obvious next step, a fresh start and a clearer role where, with minutes in his legs, he’d be pushing to get into the World Cup.
The Bigger Picture
Four Americans. The 2 most iconic clubs in European football. There was one period where you could hardly avoid the fact that the USMNT pool had become impossibly deep. This wasn’t just that Italy of a generation ago gave you experience -they gave pressure, serious pressure, the kind that breaks you or hones you. Pulisic got sharper. McKennie got harder to remove. The understanding of their own games that Weah and Musah gained through it could never be replicated in an international friendly.
The 2026 World Cup is at home. The stage doesn’t get bigger. And the Americans going into it will take everything they learned in Italy -every late night in Turin, every tough game at San Siro, every moment of doubt that they pushed through.
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