Dortmund Reportedly Put £70M Price Tag on Christian Pulisic

The young American star is up for sale but Borussia Dortmund’s asking price is very high.

Liverpool have American owners. Liverpool have Jürgen Klopp. Christian Pulisic signed for Borussia Dortmund under Jürgen Klopp. Christian Pulisic is American. As a result, Christian Pulisic has been linked with Liverpool pretty much since Klopp showed up at the club.

Liverpool, probably, actually are interested in Pulisic. He’s an exceptional talent, young, and fits the mold of a Klopp player. But even if they weren’t the rumour mongers would probably be linking them, which makes it hard sometimes to separate the signal from the noise.

And now, Borussia Dortmund appear to have come to terms with the reality that they won’t be able to hold on to him beyond the end of the current season, with the player having just 18 months left on his contract and showing no signs of being willing to sign a new one.

That’s the news this week as told by The Telegraph, who claim a £70M price has been set with the further condition that Pulisic remain at Dortmund until the summer no matter when a deal for him might be agreed. It’s a report that has the selling club’s fingerprints all over it.

When a new transfer rumour, or a new variant on one, gets floated by a semi-reliable or local outlet, the question is always where the rumour’s coming from and who stands to gain. Is it an agent looking to force a move? A selling club looking to spark a bidding war?

A £70M asking price combined with talk of Liverpool and Chelsea potentially competing for Pulisic, if one credits The Telegraph with not making it all up out of whole cloth, smells of a selling club setting a very high asking price and hoping to sparking a bidding war.

It says that Pulisic is now for sale, as far as Dortmund are concerned. Though it’s hard to imagine them getting £70M, especially with the added wrinkle of a six-month delay. Not when Pulisic will have just a year left on his Dortmund deal when the current season ends.

And not given the price Liverpool paid for Naby Keïta—a player whose deferred deal is explicitly cited by The Telegraph as the framework Dortmund would like to follow—or were willing to pay for Nabil Fekir before his medical turned up unexpected concerns.

Pulisic is talented and has exceptional potential, but he’s not at the same stage as a player as those two and has an expiring contract. A £70M asking price, barring another round of transfer inflation, is excessive. But it is is an asking price. Pulisic is up for sale.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com