April 17, 2004 East Rutherford, New Jersey
Fourteen year old Freddy Adu has been waiting all game to
get on the field and take a shot at the Metrostars after making his debut two
weeks earlier on April 3rd. He is called
upon in the 54th minute and goes on to score his first career goal
in the 75th minute beginning a career that at this moment has
endless potential.
Fredua Koranteng Adu was born in Tema, Ghana on June 2,
1989. At the age of eight, Adu and his
family acquired a green card, moved to the United States and settled in
Maryland. Adu quickly garnered the
attention of coaches in the area and after only a few years he found himself at
IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. The
academy is designed for players aged 16 or 17 but Adu attended at age 12. His talent was realized at an early age and
he was given the opportunity to develop in the best place the United States had
to offer. The MLS Academy system has
developed quickly and become more effective in recent years but at the time Adu
joined IMG in January of 2002 this was the best option. After two years IMG players are usually at
the age of 17 or 18 and then move on to play college soccer at some of the best
programs in the country. Adu on the
other hand, was 14 when he completed the program and did not have the college
option. Instead he had professional
clubs interested and decided to enter the MLS Superdraft where he was selected
number one overall by D.C. United (this draft also included successful USMNT
players Clarence Goodson, Clint Dempsey, and Michael Bradley). After enjoying decent success in Washington,
Adu, the topic of a 60 minutes feature, was traded to Real Salt Lake in 2007.
In Utah he finished the season and then flew to Portugal to sign with
top side Benfica where his career became a story of unsuccessful loans, wasted
talent, and unrealized potential.
We
have to consider what could have happened if Adu was brought up and developed
in an established academy for a number of years. Barcelona and Ajax are two teams in Europe
renowned for their academies. They
acquire players at young ages some as early as 4 or 5 years old and can
sometimes develop them for 12 or more years until they break into the senior
team or move to another team to play.
These players receive an education at the academy growing up and can
still function in society if their soccer careers never pan out. Only a small number of academy players will
ever break into the squad at a Barca or an Ajax but if they do, they have been
brought up in that team’s philosophy and have the talents to succeed.
Soccer
academies with the prestige and historical success of ones in Europe do not
exist in the United States and definitely did not at the time Freddy Adu would
have been in one. Adu had a chance to
enter one of these academies about four years before he was drafted when Inter
Milan was interested in him but he turned down their offer to remain in the
states. If Adu had accepted that offer
we can only wonder what would have happened to his career. Maybe he would’ve developed into an
international superstar playing the majority of his career in Italy. If that had happened odds are he would have
never opted to play for the United States national team for which he has 17
appearances and 2 goals. Adu would had
only have been in the U.S. for about two years and would probably have opted to
compete for his native Ghana or maybe even Italy. Even if he enjoyed decent success abroad he
would probably be irrelevant to American soccer fans. Inter Milan might have been the right choice
for Adu, but when you look back on his age and family situation it would have
been a bigger risker to accept the offer and move to Italy.
Freddy
Adu’s entire career even until this point at age 24, has been mostly about
competing against players older than he is.
He entered the MLS at an absurd age 14, it is hard to imagine an athlete
in any of the four major U.S. sports to enter their respective league at age
14. Adu credits his decision to go pro
to his family’s financial troubles. No
one can blame him for making that decision especially at the age of 14. If your family is struggling to make ends
meet and you are a 14 year old offered millions of dollars to play a
professional sport I doubt there are many who are going to turn down that
opportunity.
Adu really did not have a choice
but he was able to stay close to home after being drafted by D.C. United. It is tough to blame any one person or event
on his lack of success but if you were, the best argument could be made with
D.C. United. He was drafted number one
because of his current skills not because of his potential. A 14 year old should be looked at as a future
first team player regardless of previous exposure or talent. The best option may have been to just let Adu
develop for a few more years in their academy or youth system and look towards
the future. The best young players in
Europe or South America are slowly introduced to top level playing time and are
usually introduced as a first team player around age 17 or 18 if they are
really talented. Before turning 18 Adu
had already made 98 appearances as a professional before signing for Benfica. Delaying his debut a few years may have made
a large difference in the success of his career but we’ll never know what could
have been.
Ten years later and Adu, the Ghana native, believe it or
not is only 24 years of age. He is
younger than international soccer stars Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and
Wayne Rooney. Adu did make a splash in
2007 when he signed for Benfica but has already played for nine professional
teams spanning the globe and bringing him to Portugal, France, Greece, Turkey,
back to the U.S., Brazil, and most recently training with second-tier side
Blackpool in England. He has never
played in more than 11 matches for a team outside of the United States. In a recent interview, Adu claims he is not
rushing in his search for a team currently but is instead trying to find the
right fit. Although Adu will not live up
to the hype once placed upon his shoulders he can still redeem his career on a
club level and possibly on an international level. The anticipation and pressure on Adu was immense
because he was expected to revolutionize American soccer and put it on the map. Despite falling short of what many expected
of him, Adu can still resurrect his image on the field. The video linked is worth ten minutes and you
will see that Adu is not bitter about his lack of success and he realizes that
exposure and high expectations at such a young age set him up for failure.
