Ruijie Lu '21 Recruiting Profile

I didn't start playing soccer until second grade when I was introduced to the primary school soccer team, however, I started watching soccer games with my dad since I was 2. My father loves and plays soccer, he brought me to the soccer field where he played when I just started remembering things, and then it went on and on. He's been playing with me, introducing ideas to me, and encourage me all the time. Until today, a lot of my techniques and tactics are still first introduced by him.

Even though I'm not a US citizen and was born and raised in China, where soccer programs aren't as advanced as European and American programs; I have a strong desire to play for my national team and improve Chinese soccer. Therefore, I fight for every opportunity that I can possibly get and try as hard as I can to achieve my goals. I haven't played with a premier team until 2018, which was the first year me attending American High School. However, I was still good enough to play on the high school varsity team, mostly because of my hard work and self-training throughout my primary and secondary school career. 

I prefer to play soccer as a team, not an individual. Sometimes individual talents are needed but not always. I am a player who knows when the individual talent should shine and when team-plays outrun individual plays.

Also, I stand out from academics. I maintain a 4.2 GPA and have always been one of the better students at school, which proves that I can manage my academic and athletic life well enough until today. I've always been practicing and creating art, it is a hobby of mine for years and it also inspires me to study in the field of Architectural Design in the future.  I love learning different languages as well. I learned English when I was 5 and now I'm learning Spanish, which is my third language. This extra talent of mine also interests me in the field of language studies.

I sincerely look forward to continuing my soccer career in college and extend both my academic and athletic life.