CAPTAIN America Christian Pulisic will have had a whirlwind 48 hours jetting from the World Cup to West London.
The Chelsea star skippered the USA as they clinched qualification for Qatar at 3.57am on Thursday in tropical Costa Rica.
Christian Pulisic jumped straight on a private jet from USA duty to make it for Chelsea’s game against BrentfordCredit: Getty
At the final whistle Pulisic was whisked off to a private jet to fly back and rejoin his team-mates ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s derby at home to Brentford.
Throw in the seven-hour time difference and the 23-year-old forward will be struggling with jet lag for the next few days.
However, he is desperate to play in the Premier League.
But Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel may not pick him and Pulisic can catch up on sleep on the bench.
He played 84 minutes of Friday’s goalless draw with Mexico in their opening qualifier before scoring a hat-trick in the 5-1 hammering of Panama on Monday.
And he was substituted again six minutes from time in yesterday’s 2-0 defeat which saw America qualify for Qatar, behind Mexico and group winners Canada.
Pulisic and other Europe-based players were allowed 60 minutes for a shower before a limousine — with a police escort — drove them to the airport.
The private aircraft is a luxurious way to fly the 5,417 miles from Central America.
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A source at the US FA said: “Let’s just say it’s not exactly coach class.”
Hiring a plane for that kind of job can cost £10,500 an HOUR — with the flight time of 10½ hours — but the cost was paid by the US not sanction-hit Chelsea.
The USA failed to qualify for Russia 2018 so Pulisic was able to put that disappointment behind him and look forward to today’s draw in Doha.
Confident Pulisic said: “We’re obviously so proud. I think we can do a lot of damage, man. We’re a confident bunch.”
