Adu, Freddy

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Freddy Adu

1989—

Athlete

Freddy Adu was hailed as the future superstar of American soccer before he even entered high school. Gifted with innate talents on the pitch for moving forward, eluding opponents, and getting the ball into the net, the Ghanaian-born athlete was signed to a headline-making deal by Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2004 and made his professional debut that year at the age of just fourteen. After a few seasons, however, the early promise that he would become the Michael Jordan of soccer and aid in its long-awaited explosion of popularity in the United States had failed to materialize, and Adu signed a lucrative deal with a Portuguese team after his eighteenth birthday in 2007. "It was a very tough lesson, but I would do it over and over again because between 14 and 18, I've learned things that people often don't until they're in their 20s," Adu said of his MLS years in a 2007 interview with New York Times sportswriter Jack Bell.

When Adu first began to attain notoriety for his athletic prowess, there were some who doubted the authenticity of his birth certificate from Ghana, but in 2003 Sports Illustrated conducted an inquiry and found no evidence contradicting his stated birth date of June 2, 1989. He was the first of two sons born to Maxwell and Emelia Adu, who ran a store in the port city of Tema, located on Ghana's Atlantic coast. His earliest soccer games were pick-up events in which he competed against—and often bested—players who were several years older than he was. An uncle who lived in the United States sometimes sent regulation soccer balls, which were prohibitively expensive for most youngsters in Tema.

Immigrated to the United States

In 1997 Adu's family won a visa to enter the United States through an annual lottery conducted by the U.S. Embassy in Ghana. They settled in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where Adu's uncle lived. Adu played his first soccer game in the United States at the invitation of a new fourth-grade classmate. The coach of the opposing team noticed Adu's talent and convinced Adu's mother to let her son join a travel team. He played as a forward, and his reputation on the junior soccer-league circuit began to spread. Offered a slot in the U.S. Olympic Development Program, he played in an under-14 tournament that pitted some of the world's best youth clubs against one another, and as a ten-year-old led his U.S. teammates to a first-place finish. After that, scouts from top Italian teams began courting him, and a team from Milan made an offer that was reported by some sources to be $750,000. However, Adu's mother decided against making any commitments for the time being. By this point, his father had left the family.

In January of 2002 Adu entered the IMG Soccer Academy in Bradenton, Florida. The athletic training school and academic program is one of several academies for future sports stars run by the powerful sports and entertainment agency International Management Group. Just over a year later, New York Times reporter Jamie Trecker met up with Adu, who was practicing with the U.S. under-17 team for the FIFA World Juniors Championship. Trecker noted that although the rising star was just thirteen years old, "like a seasoned pro, Adu creates space around himself, seeming to move his opponents away from him so that he can get the ball. One flick later, that ball is gone, toward the goal." Adu helped the U.S. team win a spot in quarterfinals of the FIFA tournament, where it was ousted by Brazil.

By 2003 Adu had signed with an agent and landed a $1 million endorsement deal with Nike. In January of 2004 he was signed by Major League Soccer, the professional body for the sport in the United States, to a four-year contract that guaranteed him $500,000 annually. It made him the highest paid player in the league, but at the age of fourteen he was also the youngest U.S. athlete to sign with a professional league since 1887, when a teen named Fred Chapman pitched a few games for the Philadelphia Athletics. Adu was the number one pick in the MLS draft, and though the privilege of selecting the first player was held by the Dallas Fire, a deal was arranged with another MLS team, D.C. United, so that he could stay close to home in the Washington, D.C., area as he began his professional career.

Became Youngest Player in MLS History

Adu's MLS signing was accompanied by a great deal of fanfare, and he made his professional debut on April 3, 2004, in the season opener for D.C. United against the San Jose Earthquakes. Two weeks later he scored the first goal of his pro career in a game against the MetroStars, making him the youngest player in MLS history ever to score. At the end of his first season, the assessment was mixed: initially attendance at D.C. United games had been consistently higher because of the hype surrounding its newest player, but then dropped off midway through the season, and some detractors claimed Adu was still too young and inexperienced. He did end the year with seven goals and three assists, and had managed to hold his own against players with a decade of play behind them. His 2005 and 2006 seasons with D.C. United were somewhat lackluster, with seven goals total and fourteen assists combined, and in the latter year he failed to earn a spot on the U.S. team for 2006 World Cup finals.

In December of 2006 D.C. United traded Adu to Real Salt Lake, the Utah MLS franchise. He made his debut with the team on April 7, 2007, but rumors swirled that he would abandon the MLS if a European club were willing to pay off his contract. This would become possible on June 2, 2007, his eighteenth birthday. Four weeks later Adu scored three goals to lead the U.S. Under-20 team to victory over heavily favored Poland during the 2007 FIFA World Cup Championships in Montreal, Canada. At about the same time, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (known simply as Benfica), one of the leading teams in the Portuguese soccer league, agreed to pay MLS a $2 million transfer fee. By the end of July Adu had signed to play for the team headquartered in Lisbon.

Adu was ready to move forward with his career and become a star in Europe, where the style of play is different and where the top players are major celebrities. Coming up in the American league was beneficial to him in the long run, he reflected in an interview with Bell for the New York Times, despite all the hype that became attached to his name at such a young age. "I had my own expectations, but everyone else had theirs," he said. "When I signed with the league, every article written about me compared me to Pelé. It's tough. I don't think anyone could have lived up to that. I mean, there's only one Pelé."

At a Glance …

Born Fredua Koranteng Adu, June 2, 1989, in Tema, Ghana; immigrated to the United States, c. 1997; naturalized U.S. citizen, 2003; son of Maxwell (a store owner) and Emelia (a store owner) Adu.

Career: Signed with Major League Soccer, January 2004, and made his professional debut with D.C. United, April 2004; traded to Real Salt Lake of the MLS, December 2006; signed with the professional soccer team of Lisbon, Portugal, Benfica, July 2007.

Awards: Young Male Athlete of the Year, U.S. Soccer, 2003; MLS All-Star, 2004, 2006.

Addresses: Agent—Richard Motzkin, Wasserman Media Group, 12100 West Olympic Blvd., Ste. 200, Los Angeles, CA 90064.