Costa Rican soccer star Rocky Rodriguez's adverse path to the American Dream

At age 23, Costa Rican soccer star Rocky Rodriguez achieved her three major life dreams. And while she was living the American Dream by her own definition of the term, she was also experiencing an immigrant reality: being far away from home.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who is the daughter of Sivianni Rodriguez, a retired soccer player with the Costa Rica national team, has had soccer running through her veins since the age of 7. 

At a young age, she set herself three goals. First, she wanted to get a university scholarship to play soccer in the U.S. Second, she wanted to compete on the Costa Rica national team. Lastly, she wanted to play soccer professionally.

By the time she was just 15, Rodriguez had already achieved two of her three life dreams: to compete for her country’s national team and play soccer professionally. However, playing with the national team didn’t fulfill her as much as she thought it would.

“Fútbol in Costa Rica at that time made me really mad,” Rodriguez said on NBC’s "My New Favorite Futbolista." “Actually, that was the reason I wanted to leave the country as soon as I could because sometimes, I would cry seeing how women’s fútbol was completely ignored.”

That's when she knew she wanted to compete in the United States – even if that meant being far away from her loved ones. Rogriguez did everything she could to set herself up with the best chances of getting those opportunities.

"Every day I was training, studying, training, studying training, studying and I was very close to burnout because I really wanted to go to the U.S.," she said. " I didn’t know how to become more visible ... and I was very afraid because I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t fulfill my dreams."

Rodriguez was playing in the Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Canada in 2012 when her luck changed. She met Erica Walsh, who was Penn State University’s women’s soccer coach, and Walsh recognized the youngster's potential immediately.

Walsh wasn't just any coach, however – she was also with the U.S. national team.

"I reached out to Erica Walsh – that was the opportunity I had dreamed of," Rodriguez said. "It arrived and couldn’t believe it."

The coach had invited Rodriguez to play for the school team, but the admission process had turned out to be a total nightmare.

While there is no uniform procedure for international students, transcript evaluations can take from multiple weeks to months to process.

It was all worth it, though. After countless hours of stress, she was accepted to the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State and was set to start in the fall of 2012.

"At the end, after many obstacles, everything worked out," Rodriguez said. "I was crying on the plane. I was very afraid of leaving my family behind, my country, but I knew that I wanted to be there [Penn State]. 

Her career took off almost immediately. That year, she was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The next year, she scored six goals and was even named Academic All-Big Ten. And as a junior, she was named Big Ten Midfielder of the Year. 

While Rodriguez found much success, there were also hardships along the way that included a language barrier and difficulty with the team’s physical intensity.

“There were days when I would wake up, saying, ‘I’m super grateful to have this opportunity and to be here, how nice that is.’ And other days or the next time I would say, ‘What am I doing here? I already want to leave; I don't want to be here now.’”

Rodriguez pushed through and prevailed. After graduating from Penn State, she joined New York’s Sky-Blue FC and four years later, she joined the Portland Thorns FC, her current team.

On the national team, she has played in six games, including two starts. During the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Rodriguez scored Costa Rica's first-ever World Cup goal in a group stage match against Spain.

"I feel a deep gratitude to both countries, all the people who are involved and we are going to see what else follows in the upcoming years," she said.

Rodriguez and the Costa Rica national team are set to take on Spain on July 21 at 3:30 a.m. ET. in their first group stage match of the 2023 Women's World Cup.

You can listen to the full "My New Favorite Futbolista" episode with Rodriguez here.