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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) -- Jay Ajayi isn't a household name yet but the Miami Dolphins are counting on him to carry the load at the running back position and solidify himself as one of the game's upcoming players.

At the Fox & Hounds British-American Pub in Ft. Lauderdale, Ajayi opened up with CBS4's Mike Cugno about his upbringing, traveling, and his love for both the original and American style of football.

"Your love for soccer has never gone away. Where did that start? Where did you become a soccer fan and when," asked Cugno.

"Growing up in London, of course that's the premier sport over there," said Ajayi. "My dad wouldn't let me live in the house if I wasn't an Arsenal fan. My love for Arsenal began very young and I played soccer all the way until my junior year in high school and I was pretty good as well."

He's obviously still pretty passionate about the team – as we quickly learned watching the opening round of this year's Euro Cup. Even though the conversation was often broken up by cheering, we discovered just how close Ajayi actually came to playing soccer -- a life choice he had to make as a high schooler.

"At the time, my competitive league coach, he had some coaches for the Nigerian national team come look at me and stuff at practice," he said. "They were impressed and they said if I wanted to take it seriously I would have to – pick one – exactly. And it was kind of the same way. I was good at American football and I was good at soccer but I wasn't devoting 100 percent of time to either one."

Choosing to stick with American football paid off and his skills from the pitch were actually transferable to the gridiron.

"In soccer, it's like stop, start, stop, start. You make runs here and there. You could be walking and all of a sudden have to sprint if someone plays, you have to sprint just like that. You have to be really in shape. Having good feet. All those things. Having good coordination. Growing up, when I started playing running back, it was very natural to me, so I would definitely credit that to my soccer back ground, for sure."

He has now parlayed all of that quick footwork into an NFL career, and with Lamar Miller jetting off to Houston, the starting gig for running back is up for grabs.

"I'm definitely excited about this season," Ajayi said. "Opportunities like this aren't given to everyone. I definitely know I'm going to take it and run with it and I'm hoping to be a great player for this team – a guy that makes big plays for this offense and scores a lot of touchdowns this year. That's my goal and I'm hoping I can get that done this year."

Ajayi's story is made all that amazing considering just how much more popular the sport of soccer is across the pond.

"Who would've known that a kid born in London could end up being a big player in the NFL and being able to make it in another sport,= you would've never known about in England, and now, I'm here playing in the top league in America," said Ajayi. "It's amazing and it definitely makes me feel grateful for all the challenges and adversity, and all the ups and downs throughout my whole life so far."

So has the new-found fame led to encounters with his favorite soccer players?

"So I actually got the opportunity this March," he replied. "I got to go back for an externship for NFL-UK, just seeing what they got going on over there. During that time in London, they actually got to surprise me with an Arsenal legend – very similar to like a Michael Jordan for American kids growing up watching the game of basketball."

That player was Thierry Henry.

"One of the greatest players for me to ever play and my favorite players growing up," Ajayi revealed. "He's the reason why I really got into sports. So I got to meet with him, he surprised me. I got to meet with him, chat with him, and we've actually become really good friends. We communicate every now and then and talk."

Another new face to Ajayi this year is new Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase. Cugno asked how that relationship has turned out so far.

"It's been great," he said. "Coach Gase, he's such an energetic guy. He makes it really fun for you to come out to practice every day. I've been enjoying all the practices. Just going out there trying to learn this new offense, trying to get a grasp for it and, you know, just execute out there on the practice field. It's not been perfect every day but that's what we've been doing out there, just so when we get to training camp, we're rolling and all throughout preseason. We just continue to improve to where our offense is a lot better this year than it was in the past."

Check out part 2 of the interview below.