Ryan Raposo has been chasing this since he was chasing his two older brothers in family soccer games, when he was just a toddler.

"When I as growing up I was kind of looked at weird for trying to pursue a career in soccer, when everything around me was hockey," says the 20-year attacking midfielder from Hamilton.

And now, he's about to make very big news in pro 'footy'.

Raposo, who lit up the Atlantic Coast Conference for Syracuse University in his sophomore season last fall, has been ranked from sixth to ninth in various previews of Major League Soccer's SuperDraft. He's already signed a three-year MLS deal at, he says, six figures U.S. per season. Next Thursday's draft will determine which team gets his contract rights.

Two years short of graduation, the normal entry point to the MLS, Raposo qualified for the draft through the Generation Adidas program which allows a select few (only four this year) NCAA underclassmen to turn pro early without affecting a team's salary cap.

In 2019, Raposo stood seventh in NCAA Division 1 with 37 points which included 15 goals, 11th highest in the nation, and was a first-team all-star. He was named to the ACC all-freshmen team in 2018 with four goals and 15 points, but his game simply skyrocketed as a sophomore.

"Syracuse definitely took a chance on me: I was coming off a broken leg and I didn't have many scholarship offers," he said. "I knew the only way to pay them back was to do my best."

The sense of payback is a recurring theme for Raposo, who cites the dedication and hard work of his parents Lori, a nurse, and Rui, a fine foods consultant, as the motivating forces in his rise from five-year-old house league phenom at Mount Hamilton (nine goals in the first half of his first game) to impressing MLS scouts at the Generation Adidas showcase in December.

"When I was a U10, my mom would work nights at The General until 7 a.m. then come home, get my clothes ready, make me breakfast, prepare my lunch and then drive me all the way into Toronto to the TFC Academy for practice at 9," Raposo recalls. "She would sleep in the car during practice and I'd have to knock on the window to wake her up, then we'd drive back for school.

"If my mother can do that for me for my whole life, the least I can do is pay her back by working hard at soccer every day."

But then TFC cut him. He was devastated but his mother advised Raposo to keep working hard, and he vowed "with kind of a chip on my shoulder" to prove TFC wrong. The iconic Toronto team drafts 25th next week, but Raposo is expected to be long gone by then.

Raposo says his soccer career turned when he started playing in Burlington for current Hamilton United technical director Aleks Balta — "the best coach I've ever had at skill development" — which eventually resulted in several summons to the national U15s. He scored his first goal for Canada in a game against Costa Rica.

In his mid-teens, he'd take two-month breaks from St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School, where he was the team's top player, to train with German club Mainz. He lived by myself, made a daily three-hour commute to the practice grounds, and had to navigate life in a foreign language.

"I grew up a lot in Germany," he said.

Another German club offered him a pro contract but he and his parents decided it was a better idea to combine soccer and education, especially since Syracuse had a strong track record of qualifying players for the fast-track Generation Adidas. Now, he'll complete his sports business degree online through Southern New Hampshire University.

He developed a provincial reputation as a goal-scorer playing for Patrice Gheisar at Vaughan in the semi-pro League1 Ontario, and scored in the 2019 Canadian Championship round against the higher-ranked CPL Halifax Wanderers.

Last season Syracuse moved Raposo into the middle but as a smaller, shifty, aggressive player he patterns his play after the intelligent and creative Belgian star Eden Hazard. At five-foot-eight, his pro future lies on the outside. He's confident he'll make whatever MLS side takes him, as a rookie.

"I think I'm ready for the next level," he said. "I'm a positive guy, I know how hard I work, but you could also get drafted by a team like Atlanta, which has the best attackers."

Raposo, who helps coach young Mount Hamilton players, adds that no matter where he goes, he won't forget where he's from.

"On social media I describe myself as 'Just a kid from Hamilton.' For sure, I'm a proud Hamiltonian. My dad came here as an immigrant from Portugal and my mom is from a family of immigrants from China. This city has a lot of immigrants who've worked hard to succeed here.

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"I definitely represent what Hamilton is made of."

smilton@thespec.com

905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec