Pico Rivera's Cristian Roldan may be last made-in-high-school U.S. World Cup star

SEATTLE — Cristian Roldan and Haji Wright grew up less than three years and 30 miles apart, Roldan in Pico Rivera and Wright in Culver City.The odds that they would go on to become teammates on not one, but two, U.S.

World Cup teams seem astronomical.Yet despite starting at the same time and place and arriving together at the same destination, the two players followed completely different paths to get there.Wright joined the Galaxy’s academy at 14 and signed with Schalke of the top tier German Bundesliga days after his 18th birthday.

Roldan was still playing for El Rancho, when he was 17, making him the only member of the U.S.World Cup team to play four years at a public high school.“I might be the last one,” Roldan said.

“I hope not.”High school soccer was once the foundation of the sport in the U.S.Eighteen players on the 2002 World Cup team, the only American team to reach the tournament quarterfinals, played for their high school teams.

By 2022, the only man on the roster who played four years for a public school was Roldan.“I don’t wish my story, or how I ended up here, was any different,” Roldan said.“What I will say was it made it more difficult to be here, play[ing] four years in high school.

But it makes my story special.”His story becomes even more special with this World Cup, which opened for the U.S.in Inglewood, a 45-minute drive from his boyhood home, and will continue when the Americans face Australia on Friday in Seattle, where Roldan played two years at the University of Washington and 12 seasons as an all-star midfielder with the Sounders, winning two MLS titles.“When we talk about people’s paths, Cristian’s is not the standard right now,” said older brother Cesar, an athletic trainer with the Galaxy.

“Cristian did it mostly to be around his friends.He wanted to play with his buddies.“That is not a standard way to make it into MLS.

And forget about making [it] all the way to the national team.”“Yeah, i...