Freddy Adu made headlines in 2004 when he was chosen by D.C. United as their number one pick in the Super Draft at the age of just 14, making him the youngest American to sign a major league professional contract in any team sport.
Two years later Adu made his international debut for the USA and became particularly renowned within the gaming community as a must buy for all Football Manager players.
Since then Adu has been out of the headlines somewhat so we decided to investigate how his career has panned out thus far.
The attacking midfielder played in the MLS for three seasons (transferring from DC United to Real Salt Lake in 2006) before he secured a move to European giants Benfica in 2007.
However, despite paying a transfer fee of over $2 million for Adu’s services, Benfica decided to farm the American out on loan.
During his four years at Benfica Adu only made 11 first team appearances for the Portuguese side and was sent on loan to Monaco, Belenenses, Greek side Aris and finally Çaykur Rizespor in Turkey.
Adu left Benfica at the age of 22 and returned to MLS with Phildelphia Union, where he scored 7 goals in 35 appearances before leaving the club in 2013.
The Ghana born midfielder then become somewhat of a journey man player representing Brazilian club Bahia, Serbian side FK Jagodina and KuPS who play in the Finnish Premier League.
In his final move to date Adu again returned to America to play for NASL (the country’s second division) side Tampa Bay Rowdies last year.
In a recent interview, Adu claimed the hype that surrounded him as a youngster made it difficult to concentrate on football.
“My family was really poor. My mum was working two or three jobs to take care of my brother and me. So if Nike come to you and say they want to give you a million-dollar contract and the MLS wants to make you the highest-paid player at 14, you can’t say no. You just can’t.
“I said yes to everything that was asked of me and ended up doing a lot of appearances, a lot of promotion, a lot of interviews, and it took away from the football on the field. People saw me more as a marketing tool.” said the former DC United man.
Although Adu’s career may have not mapped out quite as hoped so far it must be remembered that he is still only 26 years old and judging by a few Youtube clips showing him playing incredibly well for Tampa Bay, we may have not heard the last from from him.
