Transferring 3,000 miles away from house isn’t straightforward. Raquel “Rocky” Rodríguez skilled that firsthand when she got here to america, from her native Costa Rica.

Now a veteran inside the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League, and 2022 NWSL champion with the Portland Thorns FC, Rodríguez spoke about her journey to the U.S., attending faculty at Penn State College and the delight she has for Costa Rica in an NBC Podcast, “My New Favourite Futbolista.”

Rodríguez was touted as a prodigy rising up in San José, Costa Rica. Nevertheless, when she was youthful, Rodríguez endured an absence of assets for girls’s soccer gamers within the nation. The midfielder mentioned that, at age 7, she had “soccer operating by my veins.” Her father, just a few years prior, opened up a soccer faculty.

“She would play with youngsters who have been three, 4 years older than her,” her dad, Sivianni Rodríguez, mentioned. “We noticed she tailored, and she or he even exceeded rather a lot. She had self-discipline and perseverance.”

Rodríguez wrote down her objectives early on. She needed to, as a result of lack of assets in Costa Rica, play soccer collegiately in america. She additionally needed to signify the Ticas on the worldwide stage, and she or he needed to play in a World Cup. She achieved all of these objectives by 2015, when Costa Rica featured within the nation’s first-ever FIFA Girls’s World Cup. Rodríguez had been on the nationwide staff lengthy earlier than that, making her debut in 2008, on the younger age of 13.

Nevertheless, the collegiate half wasn’t so easy. As a global recruit, the method was for much longer than a home recruit. On the Concacaf Girls’s Olympic Qualifying Event in Canada in 2012, Rodríguez met Erica Walsh — now Erica Dambach — the pinnacle coach of Penn State.

“I didn’t know something about faculty rankings. I didn’t know something. When my dad and I returned to Costa Rica, we looked for Penn State,” Rodríguez mentioned. “We noticed footage and thought it was nice. I used to be very afraid. I had a number of questions, and my dad and mom had a number of questions. We weren’t taking part in arduous to get, we simply had a number of questions.”

Nevertheless, the Tica bumped into a difficulty with transferring credit to the NCAA.

“On the finish, I used to be alleged to journey on a Sunday morning, and on Friday, I nonetheless hadn’t obtained a response,” she defined. “I used to be nonetheless ready for the one name that will inform me if I may fly or not, or if I wanted to attend one other semester or not.

“I went for a run, however I couldn’t. I began to cry, and cry, and cry. I needed to depart, and after I went again house, I had a few missed calls. I known as my coach again and requested her, ‘Am I going or not?’ She mentioned, ‘Sure, you possibly can come! The credit score problem has been resolved. Vamos! Yeah, you’re clear!’”

In 2015, Rodríguez received the MAC Herman Trophy, hadned out annually to the nation’s high collegiate soccer participant. She, and Penn State, received the NCAA Championship in 2015 over Duke.

As an expert, Rodríguez was the primary Costa Rican to ever play within the NWSL, after being chosen by Sky Blue FC — now NJ/NY Gotham FC — within the 2016 NWSL Draft, the draft’s second total choice. She was traded to the Portland Thorns in 2020, and has since received the 2021 NWSL Problem Cup and the 2022 NWSL Championship. Her dad and mom noticed her play professionally for the primary time in america on the championship in Washington, D.C.

Now, Rodríguez is gearing up for her second FIFA Girls’s World Cup, and may very well be named the captain with Shirley Cruz retired from skilled and worldwide soccer. Rodríguez spoke with delight of representing Costa Rica, regardless of the struggles of missing assets in her early years.

“Each time I return to Costa Rica, I admire the little issues. I used to be younger after I left,” she defined. “I used to be 18 years previous, and I solely noticed the dangerous, and what pissed off me with my nation. However as I grew older, I’d go, after which come again. It’s who I’m, and nothing will be capable of erase it. It doesn’t matter what number of years I’ve been right here.

“I really feel a deep gratitude to each nations, all of the individuals who have been concerned and we’re going to see what else follows within the upcoming years.”

Click on right here for your complete “My Favourite Futbolista” sequence.

We spoke with Rodriguez after her first yr in Portland: