For the last year and a half, Nico Pascual-Leone has been living the life of a professional soccer player in Spain, but his soccer journey began long before that. The 23-year-old Wayland alumnus currently plays professional soccer for the club team CD Castellon.

“I started playing high school soccer my sophomore year,” Pascual-Leone said. “I loved playing in high school. I was able to play with my best friends and even my brother for a year, and we did go on to play together at Amherst as well. I also met and learned from the guys who were older than me and became close friends with some of them.”

Pascual-Leone later went on to play soccer at Amherst College, where he scored 27 goals and tallied 23 assists over the span of four years.

Although Pascual-Leone wasn’t an immediate star for Amherst–only scoring one goal his freshman year–he eventually became one of the team’s standout players and earned the honor of being one of the team’s captains. In his final season at Amherst, Pascual-Leone scored 13 goals, including a double-overtime game-winning goal in the Division III Men’s Soccer Elite 8.

“My final season culminated in winning the National Championship, which was an incredible way to end,” Pascual-Leone said. “But I knew I wanted to see where I could take my soccer career, so I decided to take a shot at going pro.”

After a successful career at Amherst, Pascual-Leone knew he wanted to play in Spain, but wasn’t quite sure how to get involved at first. Eventually, a connection helped him get in touch with some clubs.

“I was able to speak with a family friend here in Spain who sent my highlight video to a couple teams,” Pascual-Leone said. “After seeing the video, they invited me to come try out with them during their preseason. The first team I went to try out for was CD Almazora and after a couple days of practice, they told me they would like to sign me.”

After signing with the club, Pascual-Leone immediately noticed some differences in the style of play between college and professional soccer.

“One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed is that in professional soccer, people are making a living off of soccer and therefore there is more competition between teammates to do well,” Pascual-Leone said. “While there is still a desire for team success, there is also greater competition amongst the players which ultimately leads to everyone training harder and getting better.”

Pascual-Leone expressed that aside from the soccer piece of playing professionally, he has also appreciated the experience of fulfilling a lifelong dream.

“I honestly think that I don’t appreciate it now as much as I will when I’m older,” Pascual-Leone said. “I have loved soccer since before I could walk and so to be able to say that my job right now is to play soccer is incredibly humbling.”

In the upcoming year, Pascual-Leone has plans to move on from the professional game and experience a different dream of his: attending medical school. Pascual-Leone is grateful for all that soccer has given him.

“There are a lot of ups and downs in soccer, and if you don’t love soccer then [the journey] is going to be really hard,” Pascual-Leone said. “So just enjoy it. Enjoy spending time with the team. Enjoy practicing. Enjoy playing. Enjoy winning.”