Lucas Fernandez-Kim ’25 had a childhood habit that predicted a lifelong passion.
“I always had a ball on my feet when we went on hikes as a family,” he recalled.
Now, the 22-year old midfielder and Aggie alum, is living the dream as a newly drafted professional soccer player for the Portland Timbers, part of Major League Soccer.
Fernandez-Kim grew up in Berkeley, California. Through his Spanish father, a soccer fan, Fernandez-Kim grew up watching generational greats like Javi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta. As he pursued music and other sports hobbies, by high school, Fernandez-Kim was set on pursuing soccer at a UC school. He participated in a UC Davis’s Soccer ID Camp and met men’s coach Dwayne Shaffer, who then saw Fernandez-Kim play for Berkeley High School. Fernandez-Kim would become a walk-on student-athlete for UC Davis men’s soccer in 2021. He graduated in 2025 with a degree in managerial economics.
“It was difficult at times when school ramped up with soccer,” he said, and described working with student-athlete resources like tutors. “I found myself in the library having to lock in time for midterms.”
While at UC Davis, Fernandez-Kim was also a member of the Davis Legacy Soccer team within USL 2, a pre-professional league for MLS and United Soccer League hopefuls. Fernandez-Kim described the league as “a very competitive environment” that kept him fit and mentally sharp during summers.
After a 2025 season playing for Oregon State University, in December, Fernandez-Kim was drafted by the Portland Timbers in the third round of the 2026 MLS SuperDraft. He now lives in downtown Portland, where there is a fervent soccer fanbase. (The city doesn’t have professional football, baseball or hockey teams.)
“Walking around downtown, there’s always Timbers’ logos and merchandise in the restaurants.” The Timbers share a stadium with recent National Women’s Soccer League champions, the Portland Thorns.
Fernandez-Kim is now adjusting to a faster-paced level of play that requires knowing what to do with a possession before the ball touches his cleats.
“At the collegiate level, I can take more touches with the ball,” he said, “but at this level, if I take too many touches, a guy might come in, tackle me, give me a hard challenge.”
When it comes to his days as an Aggie, he said he still maintains contact with his teammates and recently reunited with one on the pitch when Fernandez-Kim played a preseason match against Zack Lillington ’24, who was also selected in the first round of the same MLS draft by St. Louis City SC. He and Lillington were members of the 2024 UC Davis team that won the Big West Championship, the program’s second Big West title ever, and the first time ever won by a No. 4 seed. They both played the entire game and did not allow a shot on goal by their opponent until the 72-minute mark of the match.
One collegiate highlight that affirmed Fernandez-Kim’s soccer pursuits was a key UC Davis victory against the University of San Francisco in 2024.
“I scored the game winner with a few seconds left on the clock,” he described. “That was a really great moment for me.”
Fernandez-Kim still has plans to utilize lessons from his undergrad days.
“After my soccer career, I definitely want to explore what I could do with managerial economics,” Fernandez-Kim said. But in the present tense, he’s pursuing something that was “always the goal for me,” he explained.
“Because of my passion for it, I wanted to play professionally, and keep playing, for as long as I can.”