The forward had already received the award, which is presented by the US football federation to the best player from that nation, in 2017 and 2019, the year he joined Chelsea, as well as the Young Male Player of the Year award in 2016.

Our number 21 wasn’t able to be there to collect the honour in person, as his win was announced at the weekend’s 1-0 friendly win for the USA over Bosnia & Herzegovina in California, a match played almost exclusively with home-based players for both sides as it fell outside a designated FIFA window.

Pulisic becomes the fourth person to be named US Soccer Male Player of the Year on three occasions, following Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Kasey Keller, but at 23 years old is comfortably the youngest to do so. He is also now just one behind former Everton man Donovan’s record of four wins in total.

It caps a memorable year for Pulisic with club and country. No American had ever appeared in a Champions League final before he did so in Porto, having scored the goal which initially gave us the lead over Real Madrid in the first leg of the semis.

Of course, he went one better by helping us to beat Manchester City 1-0 and becoming the first person from his nation ever to lift Europe’s most prestigious club trophy.

It was a similar story on the international stage, where Pulisic captained his country four times in 2021, including in the final of the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League competition on home soil in Colorado.

Pulisic netted the winning goal in that final from the penalty spot in extra time to give the USA a 3-2 victory over neighbours and fierce rivals Mexico, claiming another trophy less than two weeks after winning the Champions League with Chelsea.