Honigstein: Pulisic is 'the No 1 American football player of his generation'
Thursday 3 January 2019 11:00, UK
Chelsea's signing of United States international Christian Pulisic could open the door to further business opportunities in North America for the club, according to Raphael Honigstein.
On Wednesday Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund confirmed they had agreed a £57.6m deal for the 20-year-old, which will see Pulisic remain at the Bundesliga side on loan until the end of the season.
German football expert Honigstein believes the transfer represents "tremendous value" for Chelsea who could use the USA international's marketability to capitalise on business opportunities across the Atlantic.
Speaking to Sky Sports News' podcast, Transfer Talk, said: "He's a real talent and especially if you consider the marketing value as the No 1 American football player of his generation - it's not a deal that feels expensive.
"This is a player that a lot of Premier League clubs were interested in, he brings tremendous value when it comes to gaining followers and attention in America, which is a key market for many Premier League clubs for obvious reasons.
"He might make it easier for Chelsea to, I would not say sell the club, but maybe exploit different opportunities in America.
"If Roman Abramovich deems that someone else should come in alongside him or maybe he wants to sell the club - all these things make it quite a smart business move, if you will."
Honigstein also believes Dortmund have done the best possible deal they could considering Pulisic had already decided not to renew his existing contract with the Bundesliga club.
"I think they (Dortmund) got the best out of the deal that was possible for them," he said.
"Once it became clear that he was not going to renew his contract which runs out in 2020 there was a real danger that he might run down his contract and they would lose him for nothing.
"Effectively moving forward that move by a year and still achieving quite a high price should be considered a nice bit of business from Dortmund's point of view.
"But that does not mean the player is not worth it. Once Pulisic decided he would not stay at Dortmund beyond 2020 then really he became a free agent in all but name. Dortmund had to see if they could extract maximum value.
"They didn't have a good hand to deal with initially because the player was adamant he would not stay but as they often do, Dortmund managed to make the most out if it."
