After arriving in KC, new Sporting striker Alan Pulido soaked up Chiefs’ playoff win
Alan Pulido’s first view of the Midwest as a Sporting Kansas City player was a vast white expanse. Hundreds of miles of snow-white fields and small towns visible from his plane window offered the Mexican-born striker an abrupt welcome to life in Kansas City.
“It’s different, this weather is definitely different,” he laughed on Tuesday during his welcome news conference at Children’s Mercy Park.
He’d previously plied his trade in sunny Mexico and Greece before heading north for Kansas City.
Less than 24 hours after touching down in KC, Pulido integrated himself into Chiefs Kingdom, posting videos on his Instagram from the Chiefs’ 51-31 AFC Divisional Playoff win over the Houston Texans.
“The first experience that I had here was going to the Kansas City Chiefs game. It was a great game, there was a comeback, it was an important win, but most importantly what was great to see was the support of the fans,” Pulido said. “It’s really motivating to see how immensely the fans rally around the team and the amount of support that there is for sports teams within the city.”
The move showed intent from Pulido to quickly integrate himself into the local culture, with Kansas City being the first English-speaking city he has lived in during his career.
When the possibility of a transfer to Sporting KC became more realistic, questions were raised by Pulido’s family and wife about moving to America.
“That’s a city that’s really far away from Guadalajara,” his family would say, who’d been used to watching Pulido leading the line for Guadalajara since 2016. He also married his wife, Ileana, just before Christmas, setting up a frantic turnaround of plans for the newlyweds.
“But what matters is that they support me through it all,” Pulido told The Star on Tuesday. “And most important is actually my wife because she has this unconditional support, for with her it’s much easy to become stable and adapt to this new life here.”
While on a personal level it was all about the support of his family for Pulido, professionally he saw the chance to leave Liga MX for Major League Soccer as an opportunity to continue advancing his career.
His move is one of several notable transfers for Central and South American players to the MLS, including players such as LAFC’s Carlos Vela and LA Galaxy’s Uriel Antuna.
Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez, a Venezuela native, has been attracting attention from Europe, while his former teammate and Paraguayan Miguel Almiron secured a transfer to English side Newcastle United in January 2019.
“There are players that in fact use the MLS almost like a trampoline to get to European teams or to get their level of performance back,” Pulido said. “So obviously the league has changed a lot in these last few years.”
It’s an opinion that Pulido is well aware of and while his four-year deal with Sporting KC signals his intent to remain in the MLS for the peak of his career, the chance to return to Europe still remains at the back of his mind. He is also well aware that European teams often scout for younger talent — a bracket he wouldn’t fit into at the age of 28.
“But that being said, it is something that gives me that illusion and it is something that an opportunity to excites me, to return to Europe,” Pulido said. “But that being said, I obviously can’t predict what’s going to happen in the future and right now the most important thing for me is to just achieve titles and have a great performance.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 12:29 PM with the headline "After arriving in KC, new Sporting striker Alan Pulido soaked up Chiefs’ playoff win."