Christian Pulisic, nominated for U.S. Player of the Year

Chelsea and USMNT star striker Christian Pulisic was nominated for U.S. Player of the Year, despite an injury that sidelined him for 3 months. 

The striker has been a key player for the Stars and Stripes, helping his team to second place overall in the CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. 

And not only that, Pulisic has also scored 15 goals in Europe, proving that he is establishing himself as one of the world's soccer stars. 

Christian Pulisic has had a great year, despite the injury that kept him out of the field and whose recovery took 3 months.

Despite this limitation, the striker has had a great year at Chelsea and it only took him 5 minutes to score the winning penalty against Mexico in the CONCACAF 2022 qualifiers. 

The Blues' young star is looking for his third USA Player of the Year award, an honor he won in both 2017 and 2019.

The former Borussia Dortmund player's numbers have been on the rise since he began his adventure with Chelsea. 

He has 238 minutes played in the Premier League and has scored 2 goals for his current team. 

In addition, he has two games played in the Champions League, the most important competition in world soccer. 

Who are the other U.S. Player of the Year nominees?

The U.S. National Team chose the candidates for player of the year, and star Christian Pulisic leads the list. The other nominees for this recognition are: 

Kellyn Acosta, midfielder of Colorado Rapids

Miles Robinson, central defender of Atlanta United

Matt Turner goalkeeper of New England Revolution

Brenden Aaronson, strker of Red Bull Salzburgo

For the first time, the Player of the Year selection process will be open to fans through ussoccer.com. The fan vote will account for 15 percent of the total tally, with the remainder coming from national team players, coaches, media and other related groups.

Voting for the awards begins on Monday, December 6 at 11:00 a.m. ET and closes on Dec. 12 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Winners will be announced throughout the month of December.

The injury that kept Pulisic off the field

But nothing has been easy for the striker this year, since the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September, when his team played a match against Honduras. 

In that match in the 57th minute, Pulisic was hit hard and had to be treated. He did not immediately come out of the game because he thought he would be able to continue playing.

But nothing could be further from the truth, as in the 61st minute he had to be replaced by Roldan, because he could not stop limping. 

"The injury was very difficult to overcome. I missed a good part of the season and I'm not a patient person by nature, so I was looking to get back as soon as possible," said the Chelsea player. 

The player, known to his fans as Captain America, admitted that one of his mistakes was trying to speed up his recovery and overexerting himself, which hurt him and prolonged his recovery period even more.