TORONTO

Michael Bradley interrupted us.

“Jordan! Did you know there’s a meeting in five minutes?” Toronto FC’s injured captain shouted from inside the Kia Training Ground.

“He’s the hardest on me,” Jordan Hamilton told the Toronto Sun. “In everything. He really has faith in me.

“When I was with TFC II, (head coach) Jason Bent told me Michael was always asking about what I was doing. He wants perfection out of me in training.”

In games, too. Perhaps it’s what keeps the 20-year-old so unpretentious — an attractive trait given the me-first mentality of most Millennials. He even credited Bradley for the goal he scored in Columbus last week.

“(Bradley) specifically showed me a video on his cellphone after the Chicago game of a run I could have made,” Hamilton explained. “I did that exact run in Columbus and got in position to score.”

Unsurprisingly, he received an I-told-you-so text shortly thereafter.

“He cares so much. He’s a great leader,” Hamilton described Bradley, who apparently is finding ways to contribute despite being sidelined with a sprained knee.

For Hamilton, getting to this point has been more of an odyssey than a journey. While he has been in TFC’s system since 2011, Hamilton is under no illusion that he’s anywhere close to the finish. But he’s miles from where he began.

Prior to inking a Homegrown MLS contract in 2014, Hamilton had committed to attending the University of Maryland on a soccer scholarship, passing up offers from North Carolina and the UCLA.

But following a good showing at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2013, Toronto FC beckoned, encouraging its Academy product to forgo the NCAA and sign a first-team deal at 17 years old.

“(Maryland) was upset because it was pretty last-minute,” Hamilton said. “At the end of the day, (Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski) understood. I see him all the time. He still supports me and watches me. I’m sure he wishes I went to Maryland.”

There were times when Hamilton at least pondered his decision to not be a collegiate athlete. Since becoming a full-time footballer, Hamilton’s life has been anything but consistent.

Loans to the Wilmington Hammerheads and TFC II sandwiched a six-month stay with Portuguese Segunda Liga side C.D. Trofense, where Hamilton was asked to cut his teeth.

“It was a fight every day,” Hamilton said of competing in Portugal. “They weren’t very receptive to me. I grew up a lot by going there.”

One incident, in particular, forced him to.

“We were playing 6-on-6 to big goals,” Hamilton explained. “They put me on a team and one of the guys shouted in Portuguese, ‘I don’t want this Canadian on my team!’

“So they put me on the other team. Then he threw an elbow into my face, leaving me with a bloody nose ... I really woke up after that.”

After making five league appearances with Trofense, Hamilton returned home only to find himself back in the USL on loan.

With Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore and, eventually, Herculez Gomez up front, there wasn’t room for Hamilton, who didn’t start an MLS match over two seasons.

“To say it’s on management that I haven’t gotten a chance until now is false,” Hamilton said. “I could have been doing a lot of things better on an everyday basis.

“I’ve improved my training habits. I’ve taken on being a professional athlete in the last year and a half or so. When I got my chance, I took it.”

Hamilton’s three goals and an assist in six starts this season have been a revelation for a side that’s struggling to score goals. He also chipped in a pair in TFC’s Canadian Cup opener against Montreal.

“It was complete elation. I don’t remember a thing,” Hamilton said of his first goal with the senior team. “I don’t know how I decided to touch or finish. I remember seeing it go in and I almost had tears of joy.”

It stood as the game-winner in an important 4-2 first-leg win over the Impact. More importantly, it showed Hamilton he’s on the path to becoming something more than a local prospect. He’s contributing.

“I didn’t know I wouldn’t play for three years,” Hamilton said, looking back. “I’d tell any young player that it’s not the end, it’s the beginning.

“It’s not picture-perfect. I realize that now. I’m lucky to have gotten the chance and taken it. A lot of people will say it happens fast, but it hasn’t. It has been so long and I’ve gone through a lot of frustration.”

The true test of character is how one handles disappointment and intermittent success. There’s no guarantee that Hamilton will continue to receive regular playing time after Altidore returns from injury this weekend.

What he’s shown, though, is that he’s an option. He’s dependable. He can score — consistently, even — when called upon.

And to think, he’d still be at Maryland had he stuck with his original decision three years ago.

“There was something that gave me assurance,” Hamilton said. “I watched Kobe Bryant’s documentary. When he was my age and not playing, he would drive around the UCLA campus wishing he’d gone there.

“That showed me that one of the greatest athletes of all-time had to go through the same thing and be patient and grind. I watched that last year. I really tried to turn it around mentally after that.”

After all, you need a certain level of mental toughness if The General is demanding perfection on a day-to-day basis.