Look Alejandro Roman square in the eye and ask him what he would sacrifice for soccer.
You'll find there is not much he wouldn't.
Cognizant that this is his final season on the prep scene, Scotland Campus Sports' gritty senior midfielder/striker is quick to admit he's essentially obsessed with the grind.
Married to a year-round schedule/workload, the game has consumed the Class of 2020 prospect since he was about seven years old.
What began in Spain as a hobby has steadily evolved into a livelihood. It is a lifestyle that has enabled Roman to criss cross the country--and the world for that matter--to feed his insatiable hunger for competition and winning.
Roman got his teeth cut playing multiple positions for the prestigious Athletico Madrid for seven years. And though he enjoyed his brief stay at Putnam Science (CT), the 5-foot-9, 140-pound Roman is relishing his niche as a vocal leader with a command of Scott Cox's offense.
In the embryonic stages of Scotland Campus Sports' inaugural season, the 2-0 Knights have scored seven goals and surrendered none in two games.
They posted a thorough 5-0 throttling of St. James (VA) at home Tuesday, controlling possession and executing a smooth-flowing, fluid offense.
While many projected a piecemeal, unpredictable team (especially considering the Knights entered the summer with no prior experience playing together) to endure the growing pains that tend to parallel a first year program, that certainly hasn't been the case.
Why is that?
"Everything we do, it is like a family," said Roman, who did a commendable job dictating his plays between Scotland's wingers and strikers on Tuesday.
"Coach (Cox) is trying to transfer the family approach to the product we put out on the field. So far, it is working. I've never played on a team that has meshed so quickly. We work together on the field and off it. After the game, we have team dinners. We have a tremendous trust for each other and that comes out on the field. We all want to play for each other."
Communicative from start to finish, you can hear Roman (who is quiet and unassuming by nature) directing traffic, his loud voice reverberating from the pitch to the stands as he injects a mountain of momentum in his teammates.
Being bilingual certainly helps, as a handful of his Scotland Campus Sports teammates are fluid in Spanish.
Quick on the ball and off the ball, Roman was able to take what St. James gave him in Tuesday's victory.
If he wanted to pass and trigger the uptempo attack, he did so with close control of his ball control.
If he wanted to dribble and get the ball out in transition, at the urging of Cox and his son, assistant coach Daniel Cox, he did that.
The veteran leadership quality mirrors the ideology of the coaching staff, as they've implored the seasoned postgrad to set his own mark and enforce it.
He's arguably the most experienced and skilled player on the team. He's got the all-around ingredients to make plays on both sides of the field.
This cerebral quality of Roman's game, along with the product he's put forth on the field, is a direct byproduct of his time at Athletico Madrid. He often played against star-spangled lineups there. He gauged his grit by never really playing age-appropriate.
Still, Roman doesn't want to hark back on when and where he attained an advanced skill set.
Rather, he said, the focus is on staying in the now and proving any doubters wrong.
"A lot of people didn't think we would have success this year because we are new, we've never been seen, nobody really knew what we were building together," Roman said.
"We have a very good program as far as our coaches and the bonds we have between our players. The grind here, it is like what it will be in college. You train, go to class, practice, and do it all over again. I love it."