Much Adu About Nothing

For a special treat this Sunday here’s a sports story which has nothing to do with scandal, or drugs. Or even David Beckham. Although it is about soccer.

It’s about Freddy Adu. Four years ago, Freddy Adu was the face of U.S. soccer. He signed with Major League Soccer at just 14, having already completed high school, and was said to be the next big thing.

Sad to say, he may turn out to be U.S. soccer’s Mickey Rooney, classically trained, too famous too young, and too short. Rooney had increasing trouble getting good roles as he aged, his cute turning to dumpy, and his un-Andy Hardy lifestyle had him forgotten before TV even arrived. Rooney’s story has a happy ending. He’s 85 and recently celebrated 25 years of marriage. He seems happy, content, everything any of us could hope to be at that age, a role model once more.

Adu should be so lucky.

Now 18 he flew to Europe this weekend, tail between his legs, hoping to catch on with Benfica, a Portuguese team.  He had tried out with Manchester United, he was hoping to catch on with Celtic in Glasgow, so while Benfica is a big club, for Portugal, it’s a real come-down.

As a soccer player it’s what he deserves. Adu never developed in
MLS, feuding with his coaches, failing to score many goals. I recently
saw him in the U-20 world championships (above) and he was far from our best
player. He’s already starting to play the way David Beckham and
other over-30s play, pacing himself, relying on crosses and passes to
get on the scoresheet. He’s no taller than he was at 14, and his
natural build looks set to turn to pudge — he’ll have to fight like
heck all his life to keep his weight down. He’s not that fast, either.

What’s worse is Adu seems to think he is better than he is.  He was actually getting in the way as captain of the U-20 team,
arguing with the refs and acting like everything which went wrong was
someone else’s fault. The team actually knocked out Brazil in the round
of 16, but was then knocked out itself by Austria, illustrating a
perennial American problem of playing down to our competition and
(worse) playing so hard in the first half they have nothing left at the
end of the game.

Adu was not the best we had on that team. The midfielder Michael
Bradley, son of the U.S. national coach, was brilliant, and is already
making some people forget Claudio Reyna at senior level. Jozy Altidore,
who plays for New York in MLS, was absolutely outstanding —  he could become the next Landon Donovan, even the next Beckham. Striker Sal
Zizzo, who is staying at UCLA for now, and defender Amaechi Igwe, whose
father played for Nigeria, were also outstanding. And you can’t say
enough about goalie Chris Seitz — once he loses his hair (as all good
U.S. goalies seem to do) he’ll be outstanding.

And that’s the point. We don’t need the "promise" of Freddy Adu
anymore. American soccer has grown beyond him. He needs to find out
just how good he is, and isn’t.

Hopefully Benfica, which has several Portugeese national team stars on its roster,
can set him on the right path. In Europe, all great players are
big-time celebrities, more like American baseball and football players.
The crowds for each game are enormous, the press is unrelenting. You
can’t hide in anonymity there as you can here.

Last year, while fighting with his then-coach at DC United, Adu was
threatening to play his international football for his native Ghana —
were that story playing out in Europe it would be front-page news. Here, it’s in the agate.

It’s quite a comedown. Freddy Adu turned out to be much Adu about
nothing. He needs to work hard and keep that from being his athletic
epitaph.

I hope he can do it.