TEANECK, N.J. -- As the Fairleigh Dickinson men's soccer season has come to an end, and the team and fans alike can start to reflect on the year that was, it is fair to say that the season was a total team effort in getting to where the Burgundy and Blue finished. 14 Knights scored a goal this season, 15 snagged a point, and 16 players played at least 500 minutes this season. However, one man's contributions to the collective are impossible to ignore and stand out as having helped the team click into place throughout the entire season.

Diego Arribas has seen dizzying highs and deep lows over the course of his FDU career. And those highs have been far greater than the lows.

Hailing from sunny Spain, the man who once idolized Fernando Torres, the lethal #9 for Liverpool and his boyhood club, Atletico Madrid, does exactly what the "Torres bounce" (the song sung to Torres by adoring Liverpool fans during his time at Merseyside) said he did – gets the ball and scores again.

Arribas has logged 16 goals over his last two seasons, including eight in 2019 to help the Knights secure an NCAA Tournament berth. This season saw a slew of highlight-reel goals for the striker, only adding to his career's worth of memorable moments.

Whether it was the bicycle kick that made not one but two NYC news stations, the overtime winner against Merrimack that Arribas described as his favorite, or the dazzling goal against NEC Regular Season Champions LIU to put the Knights up 2-0 and secure a crucial three points, Arribas's senior campaign has been full of thrilling moments for fans and his team alike.

It's become easier to look back at some of the tougher moments of the last 12 months with the benefits of the positives of the year now in the more immediate rearview mirror. In the heart of the COVID pandemic, November 2020, while training with a Second Division Spanish side, Arribas suffered a crushing blow with a serious leg injury that required months of rehab and forced him to miss the entire spring campaign of 2021. But in coming back to the banks of the Hackensack, work was able to begin in rebuilding Arribas's strength. "I came here without being able to run and walk at game speed, but I talked with Nick [Hodgman, Assistant Athletic Director of Athletic Training] and Frank [Aiello, former team Athletic Trainer to men's soccer] of the training staff and we started getting through a process, getting some exercises, and I started to be able to play."

Now, back to full fitness, Arribas has, in almost superhuman fashion, become an even better player as a result of his injury. Prior to his injury, Arribas was a more explosive athlete, able to run and press high up the pitch. Arribas is still able to do that to great effect, but now he can exploit spaces in against defenses and set up his teammates from in-between the lines of the defense.

An equally adept provider of the ball as he is a scorer, Arribas has 24 assists to his name with FDU, including seven as a freshman, eight in this senior season, and three separate hat-tricks of assists in three separate seasons. His delivery on dead balls has become a trademark of the Knights, and that includes three goals from direct free-kicks this season.

Arribas was nonchalant about his approach, and even shared a surprising fact; that he had never taken free kicks for a side he's played on before this season. On his approach, he simply put, "I just think I hit the ball really well when I hit it straight. When everybody's looking at you, and you just hit it well, that's a nice feeling."

The soccer is going well for Arribas, and the form has been outstanding, but his injury has also given him a new perspective on the game, and a new lease on life. "After my injury, I realized that soccer is something that could end quickly," he would say, before adding, "I'm learning kind of late, but it's a life lesson that I'm going to take forever." Also noting how he now prefers to live more in the moments than worrying about the future, due also in no small part to the COVID pandemic that has affected us all in so many ways, Arribas cherishes the moments he has in a place that he has become proud to call his "second home" at FDU.

With the shift in mindset also came an additional bearing down in the classroom. A graduate from FDU with a business administration major and a minor in wealth management, Arribas has taken a great interest in his minor, hoping to utilize that degree to shift seamlessly into another career once his soccer playing days wrap up. The road to FDU also came with some nudging from his parents, who spurred him to take on the challenge of playing soccer at a high level while also earning his degree from an exceptional university.

In Europe, with the seriousness of the sport embedded into 'football' culture at a young age, it becomes very hard to balance training and studying for young athletes. Arribas and his parents both understood that, and with Arribas not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to earn his degree while playing the sport he loved, he would say, 'Let's go and start a new journey.'

This conversation was over four years ago. Now, Arribas is set to exit FDU with a degree in tow, a legacy is written in ink, and a slew of memories. Of those cherished memories, Arribas was able to pick out a select three that stood out to him.

Number one, graduation: "That was a really special moment because in Spain and Europe we don't do that big of a thing. We don't have those huge ceremonies. Having it done at MetLife Stadium with all the people, [and with] you being here for so many years, it was a great experience."

Number two is a slightly more personal one that emphasizes the bonds that student-athletes make through shared experiences: "It was in my freshman year, having all the freshmen from every different sport getting together in the Lindens just created a really strong bond."

Last, and the one that just narrowly takes the cake as the fondest: "The moment we won the NEC Championship. We lost the previous two years in the semifinals against LIU, so being able to face them in the final and to win that was an insane moment."

The season may be over, and the Knights may not have gotten the result they were hoping for, but those memories from his career at FDU are good enough for a lifetime for Diego Arribas.