Christian Pulisic thinks about all the talented young American players and thinks they could go far in next year's Olympic men's football tournament, perhaps himself included.
"I would never completely count that out because it's a huge honor to play for your country in the Olympics," the 20-year-old Chelsea midfielder said Wednesday, two days before the U.S. senior national team plays Mexico in an exhibition.
Olympic men's football qualifying is limited to players under 23, with three overage players allowed for the final tournament in Japan. Age-eligible Americans include Pulisic and midfielders Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Tim Weah.
Clubs, however, are not required to release players for the Olympics or for qualifying, scheduled for March 20 to April 1 in the North and Central American and Caribbean region. The Olympic football tournament runs from July 23 to Aug. 8 in and likely would overlap a contemplated preseason tour by Chelsea and perhaps the start of the Premier League season.
"A lot of factors come into play, I guess, but we'll see," Pulisic said.
"We're a confident young group of guys and I think there's no reason why we couldn't," he said. "We set big goals for ourselves and, yeah, that would be one of them. That would be something I think we could do."