Pico Rivera native Cristian Roldan, who plays for Seattle Sounders FC, could soon represent Team USA again in the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
In a matter of weeks, the midfielder will know if he made the team. However, his impact has already been felt in his hometown.<\/p>\n
Roldan, a graduate of El Rancho High School, left a lasting impression on his alma mater. A standout during his time in school, he was named the National High School Player of the Year in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl Rancho helped me become a pro,\u201d Roldan said.<\/p>\n
Now playing professionally in Seattle and on the radar for the U.S. World Cup roster for a second time, Roldan hasn\u2019t forgotten where it all started. A few months ago, he came back home to meet with the players on the school\u2019s current team and remind them that anything is possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m not that much different from those kids in that high school,\u201d the soccer star said. \u201cI grew up in the same neighborhood, same system.”<\/p>\n
Roldan said he\u2019s hoping to make the Team USA roster again as a thank you to the country. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador and Guatemala and although the soccer star couldn\u2019t played for those countries, he chose the U.S. for a purpose that\u2019s bigger than him.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019d love to see more Latinos (on Team USA),\u201d Roldan said. \u201cHopefully the younger generation feels inspired to make it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pico Rivera native Cristian Roldan, who plays for Seattle Sounders FC, could soon represent Team USA again in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":762966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[88502,1582,276,6061,2961,224,5337,38372],"class_list":["post-762965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-pico-rivera"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116491911589507472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}