What happen to Freddie Adu? He was going to be the face of US soccer. He didn't even make it on the 30 man list. Who's fault is that his future did not gel?
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He is still probably trying to hide his real birth certificate that shows he is 5 years older than he admits.Originally posted by Unregistered View Post -
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Just shows the coach has no clue. The 30 man list includes repeated disasters like Spector and Bornstein but no Freddy, one of the most skilled we have. I'll take him over the the selected midfield robots anyday.Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
The US team is doomed.Comment
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Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
lower half 2nd division team in Greece.
I think I am going to get Botox treatments, dye my hair and try out for Little League.
I should be able to dominate at 45 feet with my curveball. Cooperstown here I come!!!!Comment
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Originally posted by Cujo View Post
Cujo, can you have your daily dose of pills first before starting bashing here? Or at least check the wiki first.
"Fredua Koranteng "Freddy" Adu (born June 2, 1989) is an American soccer player who currently plays for Aris Thessaloniki in the Greek Super League, on loan from Benfica."
The team finished 5th in 09-10 season. Eddy Johnson is playing for the same team and got selected for US 30-man list.Comment
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Hopefully no one will try and blame his underachivement relative to expectations on NEFC.Comment
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Didn't You Used To Be The Future?
At 14, Freddy Adu was American soccer's biggest star. Six years later he's a journeyman pro and a longshot to make the squad for South Africa. What went wrong, and is there hope for him yet?
GRANT WAHL
Stray dogs. Freddy Adu sees them everywhere in Thessaloníki. Scavenging trash in the vacant lot by his practice field. Wandering in packs outside the hotel he called home for two months. Shadowing pedestrians with enough menace to spark visions of giant-needled rabies shots. Greece's second-largest city is beautiful in many respects: the seaside beaches, the bustling restaurants, the sigh-inducing women. But no matter how hard Adu tries, he can't avoid the stray dogs.
They are a constant backdrop to Adu's own fight for survival in the Darwinian world of European soccer. Six years after making his professional debut at age 14 with MLS's D.C. United, Adu is still trying to find consistent playing time with the Greek club Aris, his fourth European team in three years. He lives a dual existence. To mainstream U.S. sports fans he remains one of this country's best-known soccer players. Adu has nearly 350,000 Twitter followers (more than any other soccer star in the world except Brazil's Kaká). He has sat on David Letterman's couch, been the subject of a 60 Minutes profile and gotten a shout-out in a Jay-Z lyric.
Yet barring a major surprise, Adu, now 20, will not be on the U.S.'s 23-man World Cup roster in South Africa. With unproductive stops in Portugal and France before Greece, he has strayed from the path that he and so many others had envisioned when he signed a $1 million Nike deal in 2003 and became the highest-paid player in MLS before he had ever kicked a ball in the league. As a rookie Adu appeared with Pelé in a national ad campaign for Sierra Mist and had a sponsorship deal with Campbell's Soup. In '03 former MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis (who now runs England's Arsenal) called Adu "probably the best young player in the world."
There are so many questions. What happened? Why has Adu shown promise in major competitions at the youth level but failed to establish himself professionally in Europe? Does he have a future with the national team? And how many more opportunities will Adu get overseas? "I believe in him. That's why we signed him," says Antonio Calzado, Aris's international general manager. "But is this the last chance for Freddy to get to the top? Probably it is."
Yet if this sounds like a sad story, then why does U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard maintain that Adu "has skills with the ball that not many—if any—American players possess"? And why is Adu so upbeat? "I'm only 20," he says, flashing his magnetic smile. "People panic sometimes when things don't go right. I don't. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm on the right track now. I'm finally, finally on the right track."
Game time in Thessaloníki. It's a glorious spring night, perfect weather for the crosstown rivalry between Aris and PAOK, and Aris's Super 3 fan club is leaving nothing to chance. As the players march onto the field, the hard-cores in the east stands ignite a fireworks display that makes it look as though the entire section has been napalmed. Nothing in the U.S.—or in the rest of Europe, for that matter—is quite like it. "It's crazy here, man," says Adu. No kidding. Since Adu and fellow American Eddie Johnson joined Aris in January, they've been sprayed by shards of glass after opposing fans shattered the roof over their bench, and scurried for cover in the players' tunnel during a battle royal between bottle-throwing supporters.
Aris, in fifth place in the Greek league, defeats PAOK 2--0, sending the Super 3 into flare-burning, rocket-launching ecstasy. But for the third straight game Adu stays rooted to the bench. After starting four times on the left wing and scoring two goals in February, Adu has played twice in the last eight games through Sunday. The prevailing view among Greek journalists and fans is that Adu has good technical skills, especially with his favored left foot, but he plays "too young," with an underdeveloped awareness for tactics, defensive duties and knowing when less is more on offense.
The scouting report among coaches is that Adu is capable of a dangerous pass or shot but that he's not fast and doesn't have much of an engine for the modern game. The Aris coach, Héctor Cúper, argues that Adu also needs to be tougher mentally. "I think Adu is paying a little bit for the acceleration he had to professional soccer," says Cúper, who has coached Italy's Inter Milan and led Spain's Valencia to two Champions League finals. He notes that in European clubs' youth programs, "you are allowed to be more free, to prepare more technically," but at the senior level "you have to win. When someone jumps directly to this level, you must be a phenomenon from your head to your feet. If you aren't, it's very difficult. He has to be very strong psychologically."
Adu showed promise for U.S. youth teams, notably during the Under-20 World Cup in 2007 (where he captained the team and led an upset of Brazil) and the '08 Olympics (particularly in a 2--2 tie against the Netherlands). So the question persists, Why hasn't that success carried over to his pro career? "I watch video of me playing well in the Under-20 World Cup or the Olympics, and I'm like, Man, how can I not be playing here?" Adu says. "It's taken me the last year and a half to figure it out. I was always satisfied with making one or two plays during training and thinking I had a good practice. There's so much more to it than that. Coaches see the times you cut off passing lanes or got behind the ball. Those are things that tell them they can count on you for 90 minutes."Comment
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Until Adu finds regular playing time at the club level, it's hard to envision that he'll get called back to the national team. He was on the U.S. roster for last year's Confederations Cup but didn't see the field, and he hasn't been in a U.S. camp since struggling with the B team at last July's Gold Cup and barely playing at the club level last fall. "It's a case of a young player who has aspirations but still hasn't been able to establish himself," says U.S. coach Bob Bradley. "When you go to Europe, nothing is ever going to just get handed to you. It's that ability to establish yourself within the team, with the coaches. He's in the midst of all that, and when you add on the pressure of the early recognition and the hype, that makes it in some ways harder."
Now that he's 20, it's easier for Adu to interact with his teammates off the field, and Aris players say they enjoy sharing a coffee or going to dinner with him. It was more challenging for Adu as a 14-year-old at D.C. United, where he says he "only felt comfortable with a couple of people. There were some guys who never warmed up to you because of everything you had." Adu showed only flashes of his potential in MLS, scoring 12 goals in 3½ seasons with D.C. United and Real Salt Lake, and he joined Portugal's Benfica on a $2 million transfer in 2007. At first he saw occasional action there, scoring two goals in 11 appearances, but Benfica went through three coaches in 2007--08, and the last of them (Fernando Chalana) did not play Adu at all after he returned from the Olympic qualifying tournament.
Things really went downhill when Benfica loaned Adu to Monaco of the French league for 2008--09. Jérôme de Bontin, a French-American member of the U.S. Soccer Federation's board of trustees, had taken over as president at Monaco, and he wanted to add Americans to the team. "Maybe the highlight of his stay was the first day of practice," says De Bontin. "Freddy scored three beautiful goals. Everybody in the academy was excited about him, not to mention the fact that he was a riot in the locker room." But Monaco's coach, a Brazilian named Ricardo, started Adu only once that season. Says De Bontin, "Everybody had the same analysis. He had incredible talent, yet he was lacking standard tactical knowledge that most players his age had. It was tied to the fact that he became professional at 14 and in some ways stopped learning at 15."
While Adu was not an automatic starter during his MLS days, the league's small rosters could never replicate the constant battle for playing time on European teams with no roster limits. As U.S. Under-20 coach Thomas Rongen says, "Our creative players have a tough time sometimes adjusting to the day-to-day of competing in Europe, which is different from our youth national teams or MLS." Rongen adds that while Adu at his best can change a game in the attacking end, "a lot of coaches say he is still to a certain extent a luxury player." The modern game values athleticism and requires even the best players to have some defensive responsibilities, and, Rongen says, "that was an area where Freddy really needed to grow and become better." Nor has Adu proved himself to be such a phenomenon offensively that a team in Europe (or, for that matter, MLS) would choose to build around him.
Last fall Adu went out on loan again from Benfica, this time to Belenenses, a team at the bottom of the Portuguese first division. It was a hastily arranged deal that came together on the last day before the transfer deadline. "I didn't even have a chance to talk to the coach before I went there," says Adu, who started just once and soon began seeking a way out. In January he joined Aris on an 18-month loan. Adu now has until the end of the 2010--11 season, when his contract runs out, to prove himself in European soccer. "It's like they gave you a lifeline," Adu says. "I started four games in a row, which is the most I have since MLS. I feel like a new person, and I'm happy again." It wasn't the only change Adu made; he also dumped his agent, IMG's Max Eisenbud, and rehired his previous one, Richard Motzkin.
If Adu can't make an impact as a pro in Europe over the next year, he will most likely return to MLS. The question these days is how to view him: as a sixth-year pro who hasn't lived up to the hype or as a 20-year-old who still has potential? De Bontin hopes Adu can be another Franck Ribéry, the late-blooming French midfielder who played for several mid-level teams before rising to the top of the soccer world, starting for France in the 2006 World Cup final and starring for German powerhouse Bayern Munich. ("Freddy has enough talent to succeed," De Bontin says.) Adu certainly thinks such a track is possible. "I want to be one of the best players to play this sport one day," he says. "I still have the chance to do that, and I want to work hard to get there."
It is an odd twist, the hope that an athlete who turned pro at 13 could become, in the end, a late bloomer. But if Freddy Adu is going to make it, that's how it will have to be.
Find this article at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...8400/index.htmComment
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Does Age Explain Freddy Adu’s Decline?
Freddy Adu’s next stop is Aris Salonica, his sixth professional team since 2004. He joins the Greek club on an 18-month loan. Adu played only three times in a half-season at Belenenses. In his one start, he was subbed off after 45 minutes. Adu is washed up and a has-been. He’s spoken of in the past tense by most. Yet, he’s just 20, only a few months older than Jozy Altidore. At least that’s what he claims.
Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune believes we should question the authenticity of Adu’s 1989 birth certificate. He’s right. Here are a few reasons for skepticism.
Freddy Adu is listed at 5’8” 140 lbs. At 13, Adu was listed at 5’8” 140 lbs. Puberty hits people differently. But few men don’t grow between the ages of 13 and 20, especially professional athletes.
Adu was freakishly precocious. By most accounts he was a fantastic student, skipping a grade. He was offered a six-figure deal with AC Milan at 10. He won the Maryland High School State Championship at age 12, before joining U.S. Soccer’s Academy at Bradenton. He was in MLS by 14. A player being that good, that young is remarkable. If he was two or three years older, playing against 12 year-olds. It would make more sense.
Freddy has had his moments, in age restricted tournaments. He played well at U-17 and U-20 level and in the U-23 Olympics in 2008. However, in unrestricted competition he has been disappointing. He was underwhelming in MLS and has been woeful in Europe. He hasn’t played a full 90 minutes since 2007-08.
For African soccer players, it’s similar to Latin-American baseball players. Potential is everything. Younger players are far more available. Ability at 17 gets you picked up by a European club. The same ability at 21, is worthless.
African teams do very well at the U-17 World Cup. Nigeria has won three times since 1985 and Adu’s native Ghana twice. They don’t replicate the success at senior level. This is because many teams use overage payers. After FIFA introduced bone-scans this season, fifteen Nigerian players were booted from the U-17 squad, for being too old.
Not only has Freddy Adu not progressed as expected. He has not progressed at all. He remains what he was at 14, a marginal MLS level player.
Adu’s failure is a mystery. Perhaps he was shuffled around and mishandled. Perhaps he never dedicated himself. But, his career doesn’t resemble a fallen prodigy.
Freddy Adu was unusually successful at a specific time in his life. It was a time when others were developing, and he was already developed. It is time we take a tip from Occam and examine the simplest explanation.
http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010...-adus-decline/Comment
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Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
It is the equivalent of playing minor league ball in Fargo. The only reason he drew any attention was due to the fact that he was a 16 year old playing against u10's.
Check out the story that just hit the news last night. The Texas HS basketball team that won the State Title had a 22 year old on the team. He already had played 4 years of HS ball in Fla (?). As an immigrant from a poor country (Haiti) his birth documentation was shakey. Same story with Adu. Why some people cannot get this through their heads and the implications that it had in terms of the notoriety that brought national attention to him.
He is an average player when playing with his peers. That is not a bad thing but at the heart of things his iconic status as a teenager was a fraud.Last edited by Cujo; 05-13-2010, 10:42 AM.Comment
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Last time I checked Greece is ranked #12 in the world, they won the Euro 2004. US at the moment is ranked 14 in the world. Beantown, NH is not really the center of world football. Get it?Originally posted by Cujo View Post
Adu has plenty of individual ball skills, but he needs to mature mentally to play the professional team game. He just might be underaged mistakenly.Comment
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The Revs could use the help!Comment
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