Fabio look-alike Mike Petersen is the Vaquero football team’s latest Danish import.

Petersen, 22, never played football in high school, though he wrestled, kick boxed and played handball. Petersen is from Nyleoebing, Denmark and brings his European flavor to America’s favorite game.

“He just showed up last spring in our January [football] class,” head football coach Craig Moropoulos said. “He was very developed in the weight room. We knew he was strong but once we started going outside and seeing his athletic ability on the field we started saying, ‘wow!’”

Petersen has always been a competitive athlete, from a young age his parents saw that his energy was in need of an outlet. It was a Monday Night football game in 2007, Buffalo Bills versus the Dallas Cowboys, that sparked his interest.

“It was the first time the Buffalo Bills were on a Monday night game in years, so I watched,” Petersen said. “The Bills had Trent Edwards and Marshawn Lynch and were doing really well on the ground but ended up losing the game.”

Still, Petersen became a Bills fan. Although that hasn’t given him much to cheer about as a spectator, it didn’t stop him from pursuing his own football dream. When he went to a football camp, he was hooked. The physicality and mentality of the game was a perfect outlet for his energy and intensity, so he joined a Danish club team as a running back and outside linebacker.

“In the first season I played I got the MVP for our team,” he said. “Running back was what caught me the most. When you just cut past someone and see them in your peripherals disappearing there is nothing better.”

The Danish player knew he was a big fish in a small pond and wanted to challenge himself in the sea of football players that is the U.S.

After a herculean game with the Copenhagen Towers in 2010, where he rushed for 214 yards, scored 2 touchdowns and a 2-point conversion, Petersen became hopeful.

“After the game some Americans came up to me. One of them played for the San Francisco 49ers,” Petersen recalled. “I can’t remember his name… but he told me that I was good and should keep playing.”

Petersen knew this meant coming to the states, and one of his Copenhagen teammates, current Vaquero linebacker, Andreas Schneider, told him about City College. Petersen saved for his trip by working with the disabled. A year and a half later he was on his way.

“I came out here to see how good am I compared to the other guys,” Petersen said. “I was a good player in Europe, but the game is so much faster and the guys are younger, bigger, faster and stronger.”

At 6 foot 2 and 230 lbs., and with the work ethic of a farm mule, he was at no physical disadvantage.

“We’ve had really good luck with European student-athletes and we’ve had less than good luck,” Moropoulos said. “At first, we weren’t sure about Mike, but as far as his commitment, his attitude and athletic ability, it doesn’t surprise me that he’s having the success that he is having.”

Petersen is a Kinesiology major with a focus on athletic training.

“I want to be the best. I want to beat out the competition,” he said. “I want to be better than the other guys.”

However, he remains a team player.

“I scream sometimes when I lift… during the spring in the weight room people fed off the energy. I just want to help everyone else get better.”

His hard work was rewarded upon scoring his first college touchdown on Sept. 14 when the Vaqueros left Compton in the dust 41-7.

Still, he is not complacent. He has a tattoo on his hip that reads, “You should not be satisfied with what you have if you know you can obtain more.”