LIKE MANY BIRDS, EAGLES have extraordinary eyesight. They use both monocular and binocular vision, which means they can use both eyes together or separately, depending on what they need to look at. They also have two focal points in each eye, one that looks forward and one that is to the side, at a 45-degree angle. The second one is for long-distance sight, and an eagle can use it to see a rabbit from around two miles away. They can also distinguish more colours than humans, and they can see in the UV light range.It’s why they’re so good at hunting. Eagles can see everything.Christian Pulisic was born in Pennsylvania in 1998 to two ex-college footballers. College soccer is a pretty big deal in the States compared to everywhere else. Proper training. Big crowds. His dad Mark went on to play professionally for Pennsylvania indoor team Harrisburg Heat in the National Professional Soccer League, where he scored 296 goals before he retired and worked as a coach.

Even before the Klinsmann influence as USMNT manager, the spell at the Dortmund machine that develops exciting, pacy, expansive talents, the relink with Tuchel in west London, Christian’s spectrum of football initiation would be broad and thorough.There was the move to England. A year spent playing for Brackley Town as a muddy seven-year-old and playing in the cage afterwards. There was the futsal league that his dad founded back in Detroit after seeing the game’s effect on the South American players he was coaching at Detroit Ignition. He wanted some of that for Christian, too. There was the front yard he’d practice in, the shelf in the basement where they would kick a ball when he was tiny—then there was the induction to PA Classics back in Pennsylvania.Doug Harris, the president and co-founder of the club, remembers Christian well.“His special awareness,” he told The Guardian. “Where to go, where the ball was going to fall. It was just something else.”

Through a childhood laced with football, Christian had seen it all. Like an eagle. He could see everything.BY THE TIME CHRISTIAN HAD ARRIVED at Chelsea for the start of the 19/20 season, it was go go go. By October, he’d become the youngest ever Chelsea player to score a hat-trick, a perfect hat-trick at that: left foot, right foot, header. There was his first Champions League goal for Chelsea the following month. Eleven goals and ten assists in his first 34 games in all competitions for a new club in a new country. The faces in Stamford Bridge glowed.

People talk about players being quick over ten yards or fastest over five. And Christian’s quick over those distances, too, but it’s the first two yards where he’s most dangerous. Watch him collect the ball anywhere on the pitch, and it’s like he’s got the ball in the box with three defenders in front of him. He zips past them like they’re in a state of shock.An eagle will swoop and glide at an average speed of something like 50 km per hour to hunt. They’re incredibly skilful predators, arriving without being noticed, utilising that exceptional vision, and then flying at speeds of up to 200 km per hour when they have spotted their end goal.Doug Harris also told The Guardian that, right away, you could tell Pulisic was fearless. The pursuit with the ball is his greatest weapon.For Chelsea in the Champions League, for the USA across the world, it is his ability to cause damage within the first couple of yards, to evade being noticed before moving at top speed, that makes him such a dangerous predator. An eagle in the fields. Captain America on the pitch.

The Captain America nickname pointed to a future with Pulisic at the helm of the sport for over 300 million people. And he’s acknowledged there was an uneasiness with a sort of cheesy nod to being very good at football, but its meaning goes far deeper than having superhero talents. It’s what he represents to young Americans. He represents the future. The sport is growing rapidly in a country that is primed for it. In 1990, America didn’t even have a professional football league and had just qualified for their first world cup in over twenty years. But since 2012, the MLS has seen a rise in interest of at least 27%. Players from across the country are moving to Europe—the traditional home of the best players—to play for the biggest clubs; the national team is getting stronger, they’re hosting a World Cup with Canada and Mexico in 2026, the fan culture is electric, dedicated, and fun. Pick-up games in every town in every State of the country are full of young boys and girls wanting to be the next Christian Pulisic.“It’s been a difficult road for me,” Christian told CBS Sports in May. “I couldn’t imagine winning the Champions League ever in my life, and now I’m here. It’s just crazy. I can’t explain it; it’s just incredible. I have no words. I’m so proud. I’ve been hugging my family and friends—I’m just so proud.”The journey, really, is only just beginning.

*Play FIFA 22 by January 14th 2022 and receive an un-tradable Next Generation player item, which could include Christian Pulisic. Conditions and restrictions apply. Learn more at ea.com/be-the-next-generation