When Chicago Fire midfielder Djordje Mihailovic was growing up in Lemont, he dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player.

“When I was little, I’d come home from school and always play in the backyard,” Mihailovic said. “Soccer is in my blood. It’s in my family’s blood. I think it was inherited with the genes.”

There is no doubt about that. Mihailovic, 20, is the son of Aleks Mihailovic, who was a midfielder for the Washington Diplomats and Jacksonville Tea Men of the defunct North American Soccer League in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mihailovic’s older sister, Aleksandra, led the Lemont girls soccer team to the Class 2A state semifinals in 2015 and played collegiately at New Mexico.

Djordje may be the best of the lot. After playing 10 years for the Chicago Blast, the youth club his father founded and owns, and four years with the Fire Academy, Mihailovic signed a pro contract with the Fire on Jan. 17, 2017, before he even graduated from high school.

Since then, Mihailovic’s star has risen dramatically despite a major injury. He made his pro debut as an 18-year-old rookie in 2017, appearing in 17 games, including seven starts, and scoring a goal and adding two assists.

Mihailovic suffered a ruptured ACL in his right knee during the Fire’s first-round playoff loss to New York, an injury that sidelined him for 10 months. It was a setback that helped him adjust to the life of a pro athlete.

“What I learned, especially through my injury, is how to be a pro off the field and how to take care of myself,” Mihailovic said. “It’s one of the things that you wouldn’t normally think about when you first sign, especially as a young player. You’re not really worried about your body; you just go out and start hitting balls.”

Being a pro soccer player is much more than playing. It entails training, film study, nutrition and being able to work with teammates who hail from around the world.

“What you see on the field is the good stuff,” Mihailovic said. “But behind the doors is completely opposite and [entails] all the hard work that you put in. Especially when I was recovering from injury, I was here eight hours a day.”

Mihailovic still lives with his family in Lemont. His reputation is growing far beyond his hometown.

After returning to action in August, Mihailovic started the final eight games of the season, contributing a goal and four assists. He began the 2019 season entrenched as a starter.

“He’s doing well and developing and he’s bringing the youth and the energy of the young player and the desire to push the guys in front of him,” Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic said. “That’s important for our team and it’s important for him to keep growing and getting better.

“We definitely benefit from his talents and we are going to try to develop him to the next level so the team can benefit even more.”

Mihailovic already is benefiting. In January, he received his first call-up to the U.S. senior national team. He had a memorable debut, scoring the game-winning goal Jan. 27 in a 3-0 win over Panama in a friendly in Glendale, Arizona. Six days later, he started and played 63 minutes as the U.S. beat Costa Rica 2-0.

“I don’t really remember how I was feeling at the moment [he scored], but I was definitely excited, more so of all the hard work that we put in the four weeks before that game,” Mihailovic said. “To get started [well] under [new U.S. coach] Gregg Berhalter meant a lot to him and me and the rest of the team, so it was definitely a memorable moment.”

Mihailovic is one of a new crop of young players being looked at by Berhalter, who took over the national team after the U.S. failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. By the time the 2022 World Cup in Qatar rolls around, Mihailovic should be in the prime of his career, so he’s off to a good start.

“It was an important achievement for him and his confidence, being still a young player, getting into the national team, scoring and having a good game overall,” Paunovic said. “He’s doing good. He came back with a good spirit and that’s also important for the rest of the season so he can develop to the next level.”

While it is fairly common for teenagers to break into the pro ranks overseas, it is still a rare accomplishment in MLS, where most homegrown players are drafted out of college. For Mihailovic to earn playing time so quickly for the Fire and the national team is a good sign for him personally, as well as American soccer in general.

“I think you have to have the desire to play on the national team and you have to have the quality and put the hard work in, which he did,” Paunovic said. “Credit to him. He was ready.

“It takes [talent], but also you have to be ready for the opportunity and he was.”

Mihailovic always has been ready for a career that required him to sacrifice a normal high school existence. He was rarely in class at Lemont because of traveling with the Fire Academy team, but he still fit in.

“I owe a lot to the school,” Mihailovic said. “The school did a great job of having me do my thing as well as keeping me in the loop with my grades and stuff.”

Thanks to the Fire, Mihailovic still calls Lemont home, so he has the best of both worlds.

“It’s exciting to be able to live with my family and to start out my career here,” Mihailovic said. “That helped me grow a little bit into the life.

“When the time comes, I’ll be on my own.”

Mihailovic will be ready when it does and he’s wise enough to prepare for a future after soccer. He is taking online college courses and is close to earning a degree in sports management.

“The first three years have gone by so fast,” Mihailovic said. “You never know what’s going to happen after [the playing career is done]. I think I’m going to go to law school.”