Oscar Pareja attracts ample praise for bringing talented youth all the way through the FC Dallas academy to eventual first-team stature. He was there at the outset more than half a decade ago as a linchpin of the youth structure. And on returning in 2014 to take over as head coach after departing for a two-year spell in charge of Colorado Rapids, he was able to lead for the first time some of the fruits of those academy labors at top-team level.

His first campaign leading them resulted in a playoff run halted by an away goals defeat to Seattle Sounders on a cool mid-November night in the Pacific northwest. The two-legged affair, ultimately lost at home thanks to a 1-1 scoreline in the first leg, saw the pair play out a testy 0-0 draw on the return in Seattle. Dallas had glaring opportunities on the night but were undone by an always dangerous, more streetwise Sigi Schmid-marshaled side. It nevertheless bore witness to the vitality of exuberant youth around the club’s base in Frisco, north of Dallas.

Yet all the deserving pats on the back engendered by this knack for nurturing homegrown youth obscures another bubbling talent he was instrumental in plucking from his homeland. Someone who, from another angle, may have been Pareja’s greatest gift last year: flying winger Fabian Castillo.

That crucial clash with Seattle was redolent of Colombian Castillo’s role at the heart of Pareja’s team. The best chances tended to either fall at the feet of Castillo or were engineered by his electric pace, a seemingly quixotic trait whereby it appears to increase while the ball is at his feet. One in particular offered a momentary insight into the kind of incident that might’ve seen the Castillo of old let frustration overcome his game. He’d just crafted an opening from the right, floating a teasing cross to the back post that went abegging, Tesho Akindele, MLS rookie of the year, joining fellow forward Blas Perez at the near post when he might’ve been better advised peeling off to the rear. Castillo made clear his feelings, perplexity, even slight disgust, etched across his face. Yet, his efforts ultimately futile, he persevered on a disappointing night when Pareja and his team failed to find an answer to Seattle’s tactical nous. The transition was evident, placing a satisfying period on the end of a season of quick evolution.

“You’ve got to know Fabian enough, to understand his approach to the game,” says Pareja of the 22-year-old’s progress. It’s a balancing act between his virtues and shortcomings, encouraging flexibility and diversity in a player previously described as sometimes akin to an island. “So we decided to start working on this ability, trying to put him in different places in the games and on the training ground, so we can have a player who can create different problems and not always the same problems.” Last season was the fulcrum, a major upgrade on the previous three seasons when his end-product was often missing. Castillo scored a career-high 10 goals and was at the heart of most of what made Dallas tick. He was awarded with a new five-year contract in pre-season.

Schellas Hyndman was head coach when the then-18-year-old arrived at Toyota Stadium in March 2011. The raw starlet’s capture, however, was covered with the fingerprints of Hyndman lieutenant Pareja, at the time assisting the first team alongside his academy role. It had been Pareja’s Colombian connections that alerted the Dallas coaching staff to Castillo’s potential availability. One-time Colombian international Pareja had played for Deportivo Cali in the 1990s and kept touch with the club’s inner workings. It was through this avenue he spotted a young kid who, by the time he was 16, stood out from the pack in Cali’s youth stream, one of the most respected in Colombia. Later on, once Castillo had been persuaded to move north and before Pareja left for Denver, Castillo lived with Pareja and his family, a bid to help the youngster settle. Those early days were tough, a steep learning curve.

“The truth is, in the beginning, I didn’t want to come here,” recalls Castillo. “But then I found out Oscar was here, a Colombian from my country, and that motivated me a little bit more to come to Dallas. [In the beginning] it was very hard. But I tried to adapt as much as I could. At my age when I came here, that made it difficult. It takes time to move forward but thankfully I was able to adapt and have a good season.”

If Castillo’s first couple of years in red and white were a struggle to find his true footballing voice, then last season was his emancipation. No coincidence, perhaps, that his game’s coming together merged with the return of Pareja. “My body has changed a lot, I had a lot of confidence, and I had a lot of responsibility in the team,” he says. “That’s what made my season go well.” At first blush, he appears reticent, somewhat bashful. That may be a by-product of his background alongside a lack of self-confidence with the English language and verbal expression. Not so increasingly with his footballing fluency. Last season has been popularly billed a breakout, such is the parlance of soccer America. Such lingo may be more pragmatically appropriate with regards to Castillo. The calendar year 2014 saw him break free of perhaps partially self-imposed shackles. The raw ability was always at least hinted at if not often palpable in all too brief bursts. Last season was all about greater consistency, maturity and, more frequently, brilliance.

The warm embrace of Pareja helps.

“Knowing him and knowing the culture here, and our culture in Colombia, and obviously learning about all of the experiences Fabian had before in Colombia, when he moved here to the States just made that connection [between us] stronger,” Pareja says in a gentle lilt. “I started seeing him as a different figure in that time, being an older brother or father if you want to call it that way. I helped start to build a structure for him here at the club and in the country. Obviously it was difficult at times for him like any other foreign player, but he was adjusting to it.” The climate Pareja cultivates is one in which Castillo clearly thrives. Details are scant but it seems clear the difficult family background to which FC Dallas folks often refer in reference to his early life means one marked by poverty. He was raised by his grandmother in the small town of Cabuyal near Cali and taken into the bosom of the Deportivo Cali conveyor belt at age 11. Recalling the early Dallas moments when he lived with Pareja, Castillo explicitly refers to him as his father. He’s quick to demarcate the boundaries, that at work professionalism reigns. But, make no mistake, this bond is tight, something more than fellow countrymen.

Standout performances bring suitors, however. Chatter about a big-money move started to rise above the level of murmur last season. A Colombia under-20 international, Castillo also saw his name linked with a possible call-up to the United States national team by virtue of his passage through the naturalization process. He acknowledges the interest, that he is open to the idea, but refuses to discuss whether there has been a formal approach. He may not have let go of more patriotic hopes. Part of Colombia’s current golden generation, he was a contemporary of the likes of James Rodriguez in the Colombian under-20 set-up, further down the pecking order and a victim of the strength in depth perhaps. Yet tuned-in Pareja is on record as suggesting Castillo remains on the radar of the Colombian national set-up.



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Castillo seems to take the glare of the spotlight in stride. For now. Short of an otherworldly ability to shut out the wider world completely, any sizable talent will surely allow their mind to wander the bright lights of the footballing metropolises and wonder where their potential can reasonably take them. Castillo’s dreams rest in the countries he considers the world’s top three: England, Italy and Spain. This season is key. He turns 23 soon, an age where the platitudes of promise start to lose their luster. Shortcomings linger. Blips in his tactical discipline and awareness of his role when his team are on the back foot still give his boss a headache. Sources of mitigation are narrowing, exuberant youth no longer a defense. Something sustained must take its place in order that old fallibilities can’t be used against him.

Castillo had an unusually quiet, disjointed opening day last weekend against San Jose Earthquakes, a team he has tormented in the recent past. He couldn’t find his rhythm, a difficulty that was more team-wide than personal against a stuffy opposition. Dallas prevailed with a somewhat fortuitous 1-0, last-gasp win. For Castillo, fortitude will be key. Another season of progress on and off the field may yet yield an early granting of his wish. He casts aside questions of personal goals, declaring his only focus this year is to become a champion. That’s a tall order. Pareja is more tempered, aware of his team’s youth. As for talk of a future without Castillo, he prefers to accentuate his enjoyment of the here and now. In the meantime, the discovery of a fragile gem becomes an ever more preciously held commodity.