Signed to the New England Revolution at age 15, the now 19-year-old soccer phenom Diego Fagundez recently added another accomplishment to an already impressive list: graduating high school. The midfielder, who finished last season as the team’s top goal scorer, returns from the World Cup break when the Revs face Philadelphia Union on June 28.

Has being a professional athlete at such a young age taught you anything that you wouldn’t learn in a classroom?
Of course. You need to be responsible. That’s one of the things that everyone tells you. You have to be mature enough to play the sport and be around it…. I’m playing against men. You’re not going to be out there fooling around.

Have any teammates in particular helped show you the ropes?
When I first joined it was Shalrie Joseph and Matt Reis. [They] were the two who definitely took me under their wing and made sure that I was doing well. And now I can definitely say Jose Goncalves [has] brought me under his wing too. He’s just a great person overall and can teach you a lot about eating, and a lot about taking care of your body.

There’s a lot of eyes on soccer at the moment because of the World Cup. Is there anything you could say to sports fans who don’t follow soccer to convince them that it’s a sport worth their attention?
It’s a different kind of game. It’s a sport that’s going to get bigger and bigger, year by year, especially [because of] the World Cup. There are people who don’t even know anything about soccer, and suddenly the World Cup comes and you know everything about it. It’s a hard game to understand, but once [they] start understanding it, I think they’ll enjoy it. I know it’s not like football where you’re tackling…but it’s just a nice, technical sport.

You have a pretty distinctive hairstyle. Do you use a special gel during the games to keep it intact?
I don’t use anything special. I use something that you just buy at CVS or Walgreens, anywhere. It’s just got to be glued.