LONDON, England – The lights drop, smoke machines bellow and a thumping techno beat overwhelms the senses. Huge LED screens, rapidly cutting imagery of wild cats and bright concentric shapes, cocoon the huge circular room.

Twenty years ago, this vast building in London’s industrial Docklands was a printing press, producing the sports pages that landed on the doorsteps of England’s capital.

Today, Nike has transformed it into a dystopia that’s part Blade Runner and part Apple Keynote speech, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of their signature cleat designs. They’ve invited the cadre of global sporting heroes who would have dominated the back pages when the presses ran here two decades ago.

On the stage in front of the towering screens, Neymar, Alexis Sanchez, Eden Hazard and an army of world-renowned players stand, shoulder-to-shoulder. They stare intensely into the distance with monastic concentration, as cameras flash and throngs of fans jostle in a bid to get the cleanest shot on their smartphones.

Taking his rightful place among the superstars on stage is a teenager from Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Christian Pulisic, arguably the greatest soccer player ever to be born within the United States, has been flown to London directly from training with Borussia Dortmund.

After his brief appearance onstage, he will be rushed across town to the airport, to ensure he boards the last flight of the evening headed to the Ruhr area. He cannot miss tomorrow’s training session; his adopted home nation isn’t typically renowned for tardiness.

Moments before this bombastic main event kicks off, I am ushered into a small, quiet room to meet the jewel in the USMNT crown.

Here, the 19-year-old sits in jeans and a Joel Embiid Philadelphia 76ers T-shirt — a much more understated outfit choice than most of his peers at this event would consider.

Pulisic is mild-mannered, thoughtful and affable. His entourage is small and friendly. If Americans are regarded as brash and ostentatious by European sensibilities, Pulisic does not fit the bill.

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His choice of shirt prompts an easy opening salvo: “If you weren’t a soccer player, what would you be?”

Without hesitation, he says he would be playing professional basketball or American football.

“I’ve always been a pretty good athlete,” he adds, in something of an understatement for a prodigal talent who played just 15 games in BvB’s youth system before promotion to the first team at 17 years of age.

When I propose the theory that an athlete who excels in one sport is likely to be good at others — like Jimmy Graham or Michael Jordan — he qualifies his aspiration: ”Of course, I’d like to feel confident I’d excel, but I’m pretty small for the other sports.”

Given his humble-yet-pragmatic outlook, the time seems right to delve into the empty pages on his schedule this summer …

Bailey: Is there anything you think should have been done differently in the 2018 World Cup qualification campaign?

Pulisic: Yes, I think there could have been some better decisions in terms of putting players in certain positions and formations in certain games. But but looking back at it is hard. Not qualifying was devastating. I just have to move forward with the whole thing.

Do you feel a bigger weight of expectation in the national team shirt or the Dortmund one?

I would think a lot of people would expect me to say the U.S. shirt, because the whole country is relying on me to do “whatever” … whatever I’ve heard them say in the media. But I don’t look at it like that at all. When I put on the U.S. jersey, I play for myself, I play for my family, and I play for the team. That’s really all I do.

So you don’t ever get nervous?

Of course. I’m like any kid, I get nervous. But once I get on the field, I just take a few touches on the ball and dribble past a guy and it all just goes away. That’s how I’ve always gone about it.

View photos American soccer star Christian Pulisic is focused on helping lift Borussia Dortmund out of its funk, but he’s been linked with Premier League clubs in the transfer market. (Getty) More

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