Corey Clark

Democrat senior writer

She’s the most famous athlete on the Florida State campus.

And one of the most well-known college soccer players in the world.

And she’s just a freshman.

Florida State forward Deyna Castellanos leads the No. 3 Seminoles with five goals in eight games — three of which ended up being game-winners. She’s been a dynamic addition to an already elite program.

But those aren’t even the most eye-popping numbers she has. Castellanos, a native of Venezuela, currently has 103,000 followers on Twitter and 407,000 followers on Instagram.

For perspective, Dalvin Cook has 87,000 followers on Instagram. NFL Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks has 44,200 followers on Twitter. Heck, I’m an enormous celebrity in this town and I have a paltry 15,000 Twitter followers.

So a freshman soccer player having over a half million followers on social media is remarkable.

“I’m not really a Twitter person,” said FSU head coach Mark Krikorian, whose team hosts Wake Forest tonight in an ACC matchup. “What I know is that in Venezuela she is a big star. She’s done very well with the national teams. She’s a big goal-scorer.

“... And she has a very engaging personality. She’s bright. And she’s a humble kid. She’s a very good teammate and everybody likes her, so it’s easy to see that she could develop this celebrity status. Because she’s got a lot of things going for her.”

No. 3 FSU soccer starts ACC play with win over Miami

Castellanos is still learning the English language, but she certainly speaks it well enough to communicate with teammates. And even bald sports columnists.

The first question I asked her was a pretty straightforward one: So, exactly how famous are you?

“I am very famous in Venezuela,” Castellanos said with a smile. “Whenever I go there people stop me and say, ‘Can I take a picture with you?’

She’s been signing autographs, she said, since she was 14 years old.

So, you know, not a typical childhood by any means.

“It’s great, really,” Castellanos said. “It’s a dream of every child, but sometimes it’s hard because I’m so young and I need some privacy in my life. But it’s awesome that people know who I am. They go to my games and everything.”

Later this year a Univision film crew will be in town to film a segment on Castellanos, who won the Golden Boot at both the 2014 U-17 World Cup and the 2016 South American Women’s Football Championship.

The international star said she chose Florida State because it was “the best soccer team in the country.” And according to FSU sophomore Megan Connolly, the freshman phenom has had no trouble fitting in with her new teammates.

“She immediately connected with everyone,” Connolly said.

And everyone almost immediately began joking with their new teammate about her fame.

“We do it in a good way,” Connolly said. “Because she’s very down to earth. Very humble. When we joke about it she laughs about it. Because she knows at the end of the day it’s what you do on the field that matters. And she works as hard as she can to be the best.”

In the second minute of her first college game, the Seminoles’ season-opener at Texas A&M, Castellanos took a ball in the box and in seemingly one motion flicked it over the defender’s head and then drilled it past the keeper for a stunning goal.

“You looked at it like, ‘OK, all right. That’s kind of what we were hoping for,” Krikorian said with a smile.

The head coach is quick to caution though that Castellanos is far from a finished product. Sure, she’s already a great player. But there is still plenty of room for improvement.

As talented as she is, as famous as she is, she’e still a 17-year-old freshman.

“She’s a very good player,” Krikorian said. “We expected her to come in and make an impact and I continue to expect her impact to increase and her responsibility on the team to grow bigger.”

She seems quite content, however, if her fame doesn’t grow any bigger while she’s in Tallahassee. Castellanos said she loves being able to walk around campus, walk around town, and not be recognized by anyone.

She gets to be a normal teenager. And do normal teenager things.

“Yes, exactly,” Castellanos said. “It’s different. I love it, really. It’s so good that I can walk down the street and people don’t know who I am. I can do everything I want.”

What she wants more than anything is to be a professional soccer player. Maybe in the United States, maybe in Europe.

“That’s my biggest dream,” she said.

So she’s like a lot most soccer players in that regard. The only difference for Castellanos is there will be hundreds of thousands of people following her to see if she achieves it.