Michael Zorc, the team’s technical director, was disappointed. But he also knew such a day would come: Pulisic had never been shy about his ambition to play in England.

So Dortmund and Pulisic quickly set about moving forward with parallel goals: the club hoping to maximize the value of an attractive young asset still under its control, the player trying to make sure his dream move landed him in the right place.

“There was a lot of trust in these talks,” said Zorc, who said multiple clubs expressed interest in Pulisic and that at least one other Premier League team was willing to pay Dortmund’s final asking price.

His transfer will bring an end to three remarkable years at Dortmund. As a 17-year-old, he broke into the club’s first team and promptly became the youngest non-German to score a Bundesliga goal. But his rise slowed somewhat this season as injuries and the emergence of other young players diminished Pulisic’s playing time. Zorc said he suspected the transfer negotiations had distracted Pulisic this season — “maybe his mind was not so clear” — but hopes the resolution will have a positive effect on the field. Pulisic agrees.

“I feel much, much clearer in my head now that all this is passed,” he said about making the deal public.

Pulisic has five more months to contribute at Dortmund, which leads the Bundesliga with 42 points — 6 ahead of Bayern Munich — through 17 games. After that, he will continue his development at Chelsea, a club not particularly known for nurturing young players.

Still, it was not lost on Pulisic — or his father, Mark, who worked closely with him to evaluate his transfer destination — that Chelsea’s roster situation, with several forwards potentially moving on this summer, could work in his favor.