 Adu,
Adu? Who the Hell is Adu?
Just possibly the greatest American footballer, that's
who.
Sean O'Conor investigates...
"I see myself in a World Cup final for the U.S.A., playing
against a top-notch team everyone picks to win…and we just
come out and blast them. One day when I'm holding that trophy,
someone's gonna take a picture. Oh, man. That is going to be
huge."
Freddie Adu is his name and football is his game. And he's American.
And he's rather good at it. And he's just scored on his debut for
the US under-17 side. And everyone is getting rather excited about
him. Oh yes, and he's 13 years old. That's right, 13.
Adu is not of course the first teenager to be reaping rave reviews
from the watching media scrum hungry for the ‘new Maradona/Pele/George
Best' to hawk around the airwaves, set kids and adults alike
dreaming and make marketing men reach for the condoms.
In recent years England has thrown us Gazza, Giggs, Rooney and
even Stuart Slater (remember him?) and all those wunderkinds were
said to possess magical powers and like footballing Anakin Skywalkers,
they would grow up to free their nations from the evil empire of
the long-ball game. Or something like that.
 Whilst
they briefly shone the magic in the air was tangible but now Gazza
is playing in the Chinese second division, we pinch ourselves to
say ‘stop dreaming – Adu's only a kid'. History should
have instilled in us a healthy suspicion of precocious teenage footballers
but we never seem to learn.
It is sadly true that many kids peak at a young age whilst others
can peak in their 30s like Zola – there is no hard and fast
rule. The roll call of promising young players who never fulfilled
their potential is beaten only in length by the list of great players
whose starry skills weren't spotted when they were teenagers.
Ian Wright signed pro aged 21 for example.
In view of all this we should take the Adu hype as just the latest
‘new George Best' fluff, and we should not forget that
in the ‘70s that accolade fell to the likes of Alan Hudson,
Tony Currie, Rodney Marsh and Peter Marinello amongst others.
I recall the hype surrounding 16 year-old Ghanaian Nii Lamptey's
debut for Anderlecht (he ended up in Coventry's reserves) a
few years ago and like countless seventeen year-olds, he peaked
at that age only to stagnate afterwards. Like Lamptey, Adu is Ghanaian-born
and came to America when his parents won green cards in the diversity
visa lottery.
And yet in spite of all the hype you feel there may just be something
different this time around, and that must be down to his amazing
young age. Just cast your mind back to your thirteenth year and
you appreciate at once the wonder of this boy.
When I first saw his goal against Jamaica U-17s on his debut I
was stunned how mature he looked; like all great players he seemed
to possess speed, skill and superb balance. His control of the ball
looked like a master's. He also assisted a goal and helped set-up
another.
 American
football is no different to any sport in any country in needing
stars but there is a subtle difference at work here.
Football itself has yet to grab the American people's imagination
like it has elsewhere. It is not essentially that football is a
foreign language Americans can't speak, rather that they haven't
had an inspiring teacher yet.
The all-round effort and graft of US soccer's legions of minions
is a hard and diligent one but before American football starts its
ascent towards heaven, it needs real prophets to come and light
the way. That the saviour himself may have just landed seems almost
too premature.
The name Freddie Adu is already much in circulation in US soccer
circles; national coach Bruce Arena has sung his praises, Inter
have offered to bring him under their wing, there are rumours of
interest from Juventus and Liverpool and Sports Illustrated have
marked him as a future American sports superstar.
But he is still young, very young and incredible as it may seem,
come the 2006 World Cup he will still only be 17. ‘Let's
wait and see' never rang truer, and what is a real cause for
optimism is that more than ever before, time here is on everyone's
side.
QUOTES ON FREDDY ADU:
"You call it vision, perception, whatever. It's not just one
time. I've seen him do technical things from both sides of the field
that I've never seen done by a player that age or a couple years
older."
John Ellinger, US under 17 coach
"He has an unflinching confidence with the ball"
 Dave
Sarachan, Chicago Fire coach and former US assistant manager
"Freddy's without a doubt the most talented kid we've
ever seen at that age… he may be our first superstar. Maybe
this is the guy...but we realize there's a lot ahead of him. Too
often, promising youth players are placed on a pedestal, and that's
a mistake."
Bruce Arena, US national team coach
"A blind man on a galloping horse can see his talent. He's
a little Fabergé egg, and everyone's just trying to
protect him."
Ray Hudson, Newcastle-born DC United coach
"I want him to get a good education and play soccer…sometimes
Freddy wants to concentrate more on soccer than his education."
Freddy's mother Emelia
"13 is just too young"
Ivan Gazidis deputy MLS commissioner
Related Links
Freddy Adu comes on trial to Manchester
United
|
