Urgent boy advice?:-(?

[Aria]

I have liked lets call him 'Leon' for over 2 years now and every day I see him I like him more . Its a horrible feeling when you have a crush, I can't go a day without thinking about him, hes in like every single one of my dreams. I like him for all the right reasons, I am in love with his personality, haha! But seriously, he is the funniest, sweetest and nicest guy I know.
Anyway, I'm not sure if he likes me back, so could you help me decide?
Okay, so hes in every single one of my classes except for maths, and recently we have started to speak more like in English (we sit next to each other) and online (facebook, AIM, text). Everyone says we should go out, or that we would be 'cute'. We were talking a few days ago because in class I had started to cry, I couldn't hold it in, my mum and dad are arguing all the time at home, and my aunt recently had a miscarriage, so its been a rough time for me at home. I got taken out of class, and that was last period so he didn't see me again for the rest of that day. When I got home he messaged me saying 'Are you okay?<3' and I said I suppose, thankyou for asking though, and he was like aw, what was wrong i hate seeing you upset, and stuff like that. Then we kept talking for hours about what we want to do with our lives, I told him why I was upset (because I trust him), and he was saying hes always there for me. On facebook and stuff he calls me 'love' or gives me cute nicknames,haha! In class one day this guy was going to ping an elastic band at me and he said, don't hit her or i will hit you, in a jokey way but in a way he was still serious? I don't know ll I know is he's quite protective of me, makes physical contact whenever possible, 'likes' all my photos on instagram/ facebook, all his friends and mines say we should go out, i often catch him looking at me when i am looking at him and I just get the 'feeling' he likes me, or there is something there? So sorry its really long but I am going out of my mind! I like him soo much :-(? Please help
Thing is he doesn't want a girlfriend as he is focusing on football (hes amazing) and I don't want to get in the way of it? Should I still go for it?