Cristian Roldan’s journey to burgeoning American soccer star has been pretty well documented around these parts. By now, you probably know about his insistence on playing high school soccer and foregoing big club teams; how that nearly left him without any scholarship offers and that he seriously considered just attending college as a regular student; and how he was so overlooked by MLS teams that he was able to fall to the Seattle Sounders with the No. 16 pick in the 2015 draft.
You probably also know that he had a chance to represent three different countries at the international level, but waited until the call came from the United States to make his debut.
In addition to going over a lot of ground Sounders fans are already familiar with, Roldan shared a superstition that was new to me. Apparently, Roldan would not put his hand over his heart during the national anthem until he had chosen which country he wanted to represent. Now that he’s fully committed to the USMNT, he covers his heart during the Star Spangled Banner.
We also get to see Roldan interacting with his family in ways we’ve rarely seen. Overall, it’s a great little video and it’s pretty impressive that Roldan was one of just 11 players chosen to be featured in this series (DeAndre Yedlin is also featured). Let’s hope that portends good things for Roldan’s USMNT future. As any Sounders fan can attest, he deserves it.