FOXBOROUGH — Femi Hollinger-Janzen trots off the practice field next to Gillette Stadium. His shoulder-length dreadlocks are pulled back with a headband and slicked with the sweat of a long practice in 90-degree heat, but his smile is as bright as the sun beating down on his face.

It’s the smile of a rookie player living out his dream of playing professional soccer. It shines equally brightly running drills and taking coaching as it does describing getting drafted, 51st overall by the New England Revolution in the 2016 SuperDraft, and moving into his new home on the East Coast. The 22-year-old midfielder got a place with a nice yard and woods in the back that he shares with teammates Scott Caldwell and Matt Turner and a buddy from college.

“I love doing bonfires. That’s the Midwest in me coming out,’’ he said.

The Midwest, Indiana to be exact, is where he came from. He played four years at Indiana University, where he won a national championship, and spent most of his childhood in Goshen, a picturesque town of brick buildings and maple trees.

Hollinger-Janzen moved with his family to Goshen when he was 6 from the West African country of Benin, where he was born. He was abandoned as an infant with a severely deformed left leg and was brought to a hospital in the city of Cotonou. Lynda Hollinger-Janzen, a Mennonite missionary working in the maternity ward, decided to take the baby home to her husband Rod.

The Hollinger-Janzens decided they wanted to adopt the baby, but they were scheduled for a three-month furlough back in the United States before they could make it official.

A local couple agreed to take Femi in until they could return, but they could not take him with a cast on his leg, which curved dramatically inward. Women in the villages carried babies on their backs, and a cast would have made that impossible. Without one, it was unlikely Femi would ever walk normally, but the Hollinger-Janzens had no other choice.

By the time of his first birthday, however, Femi was crawling normally. When he was 4 there were no medical signs his leg had ever been deformed. He started playing soccer, and has his first memories of kicking a ball around in the yard or in the streets with neighbors and friends, without lines or goals, just for fun.

“It’s still surreal to me,’’ he said.

Femi finally got to Indiana after his birth father agreed to let Lynda and Rod adopt him officially. It was a bit of a shock.

“In Benin, when you pass people you stop and say hi and talk to them on the streets and stuff,’’ Femi said. “Here it’s kinda, cars flying past, everyone is head down, minding their own business, so I definitely think that was the biggest shock to me, especially being a kid and loving to talk to people and stuff.

“The first few weeks I was in the United States I [thought], ‘OK, no one’s out playing, where are the kids, where’s the soccer at?’?’’

Once the school year began, though, he found plenty of soccer. By the time high school came, he started as a freshman for Bethany Christian High School where he went on to set a school career record with 67 goals and 23 assists and was the 2011-12 Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

Playing on a small high school team, though, only a few colleges contacted Femi until he went to a soccer camp at Indiana University the summer before his senior year.

There, Hoosiers coach Todd Yeagley spotted him and, within a month, got a verbal commitment from him.

“His personality immediately jumps out to you, his willingness to work,’’ Yeagley said.

Yeagley was impressed with Femi’s physical tools — he appears taller than his listed height of 6 feet and is well built — but, at first, Femi shied away from using them. He hesitated to push other players around and when he got more playing time or was given a start, he questioned why he was the one to get the nod.

When Yeagley eventually asked Lynda and Rod how to get Femi to use his strength, he started understanding how Femi’s Mennonite upbringing had taught him to be humble and put others before himself.

“He almost felt like it wasn’t his right to have some of the things that were given to him,’’ Yeagley said.

Femi played in nearly every game for four years and was a first-team All Big-Ten selection as a junior and a senior, when he led the team with eight goals and 21 points.

“He has a thirst for it,’’ Yeagley said. “He really likes the sport but he just likes to compete. He just feels very fortunate for everything he gets so every opportunity, every day, because of his background, he’s very thankful.’’

Femi started to realize he could play professionally before his senior season when he was invited for a week to train with Sporting KC of the MLS.

Still, when the SuperDraft came around, Femi had no idea what would happen. He huddled around a computer in his dorm room with his roommate, waiting to see when his name would be called.

“I didn’t go the first two rounds so that was, I was a little worried about that, a little stressed out about that, but then the third round came around and I got picked up, I was very excited,’’ Femi said. “Me and my roommate were watching it on my computer and just both were ecstatic, going crazy right away.’’

Femi played in his first game for the Revolution on March 20. Since then he’s played in 11 games, starting one, and has scored two goals and an assist. He’ll have another chance Wednesday, when the Revolution host NYCFC at Gillette Stadium.

He doesn’t seem to pay much attention to his unique origins, his mind seems mostly consumed with how to keep his body ready for a professional soccer schedule.

Even as he describes the increased soccer demands, Femi’s smile persists, giving away that he’s enjoying the transition.

“I adapt to new places pretty easily, which helps,’’ he said.

Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.