Home > Football > Bidding Freddy Adu adieu: America's lost opportunity

Bidding Freddy Adu adieu: America's lost opportunity

As the nation's best soccer prospect is sent packing to Utah, has the dream of the world game finding itself in the United States gone as well?

by Tom Harrison on 13 December 2006

Email this Article (7) Comments

25%

75%

Freddy Adu: compared to Pele (gettyimages.com)

Related Bet:

Free £10 bet when you register at

Submit this article to Punditit

The 2006 World Cup was a key moment for the further development of soccer (it's still too strange for an Australian to say "football") into a truly dominant world game - the success of the Asian nations like South Korea and Turkey in 2002 spreading to Australia and other nations previously seen as minnows.

Of course, the final frontier for the game is to find some penetration in the lucrative American market, where the money from potential sponsors and owners could easily create several new Chelsea All Star-type teams with the revenue available.

Although Americans embrace sports such as gridiron (where 60 minutes of game time is spread over four hours of TV) and baseball (where the majority of the pitches result in no swing offered or a fouled-off ball), the prospect of watching 90 minutes of continuous play on a soccer pitch does not inspire American sports fans at all.

And now the best player ever to have graced American pitches (at least, the best one who wasn't on his last legs and trying to cash in on his own legacy. You've been outed, Romario!) has been banished from a major city, Washington, to the sports back alley that is Salt Lake City.

Freddy Adu was compared to Pele and other legends when he signed to DC United as a raw but electrifying 14-year-old prodigy, and his name has been linked to such football meccas as Chelsea and Manchester United in recent years.

Only in America could a soccer player with such promise and such rare ability be treated this poorly. One only hopes that Adu is saved from the quick slide to obscurity in Utah, where he will never receive national media coverage or a big Nike deal which could propel him to stardom in America. Far better that he is signed by a club in England, Italy or Spain, where he can become the type of player we would love to see.

Unfortunately, such a move would likely end any hope of the US becoming a new breeding ground for elite soccer talent as even if he were to live up to his initial hype this would likely be forgotten in the land of the Red, White and Blue.

Comments (7)

by Ams on December 13, 2006

Calling Adu the best American to ever grace the pitch in the US is so laughable it isn't even funny. Have you ever watched an MLS game? Adu is usually about the 6th best player on the pitch. Sure he has promise, but I think you have sipped the hype machine kool-aid too much. Besides, going to Utah will give him a chance to play a more attacking mid position than the one he played in DC and if you think the kid is going to spend the rest of the career in Salt Lake I have a swamp to sell you.

by George Gorecki on December 13, 2006

Adu, "the best player ever to have graced American pitches"? Are you kidding? He's not even the best player on his own team, much less the best player ever to play in the USA. It's unfortunate that Mr. Harrison has not watched more DC United games in which Adu has played. He would then get an accurate idea of how far Adu is from being a truly great player.

by kov on December 13, 2006

Due to the odd 'cartel'-like nature of sports in the US, it's precisely Adu's promise that has sent him packing from DC 'United' (what exactly did they unite, anyway?), because if Adu gets bought by another league, whoever he's playing for will get another 'special' allocation player from their corporate paymasters in MLSCo. From DCU's perspective, the possibility of losing him was not worth the potential allocation, but for a team like Really-Really Salt Lake it's a more attractive proposition.

by lp on December 14, 2006

"Sent packing"? Adu's the one who approached Real Salt Lake. He gets more playing time at the position he wants and is reunited with his U-17 coach.

by Keith on December 15, 2006

We follow leagues, not teams here. Which is part of the reason Soccer has had such a problem here before the MLS came along. Adu is still in the league, playing on a team where he could be the star, instead of the petulant out-muscled wannabe he was in DC. US will still hear about him if he PERFORMS ON THE FIELD something he hasn't done in MLS to this point. Writer does not have a clear grasp of US media.

by Marc on December 15, 2006

No, Adu is not the best player in MLS. There are a number of players above him including guys like Clint Dempsey (who should be in Europe by now, but isn't). But never mind Adu for a second. Your article highlights one of the big things that are wrong with MLS. The lack of willingness to part with young stars for fear of losing whatever marketing potential he has. Adu has been way way overhyped. He has shown little return for all that investment because he's not going to be any better than he already is. Unless he goes abroad anyway. I disagree that such a move would hurt MLS though. MLS has produced quite a fair amount of players that are playing abroad: McBride, Reyna, Hahnemann, Howard, Beasley, Keller (retired?), Onyewu, Convey, etc. Sending Adu to play abroad not only helps him improve, but in the long term view, can help the US nat team improve as well as hopefully inspire more kids to pursue soccer.

by a wildeboer on December 20, 2006

IF he was any good he would have been signed by a top european club immediately. Man U didn't want him as a player, only as a sponsoship opportunity, same goes for chelsea. i saw him play in an under 21 game in LA and he was terrible, no effect on the game whatsoever. overrated.