IMO, Adu outshyned Pato at the last u-20 world cup so are Di Maria, Aguero and Dos Santos. I don't think he's that good to be honest, it's just the fact he's brazilian that people hype him up to that point so Bojan hands down.
10 games for Internacional, so 23 in total. No senior international appearances. If he's that good, why is he only playing one game a month?
So what your saying is the scouts at Chelsea, Real, Inter, Milan, etc. are all wrong about Pato? You are a better judge of talent? There is a reason all the big clubs were chasing Pato and not Adu. Many a player looked great at the u-20 level but never translated it into greatness. Pato has the ability to be great. Adu has yet to prove on the senior level that he can be as good as Pato.
Pato is starting almost every match for Milan. And he has just been called up to the senior Brazil squad.
In the case of Pato and Aguero we also can also look to their performances in South America, before they were traded to Europe. In both cases they were spectacular, particularly considering they were teens, and were playing in the top two South American leagues. right now I would say: 1) Aguero 2) Pato 3) Krikic 4) Dos Santos I think all four are great talents who have potential for greatness. Di Maria also played remarkably well in Argentina's first division, even though he was playing for a crappy team. (Meaning no disrespect, but Rosario Central was horrible last year.)
and as i said earlier, schillaci outshone baggio and van basten among others in the 1990 world cup, one tournament (especially a junior one), doesn't make for a valid comparison alone. all the other evidence for now points to pato being one of, if not the, best player in the world 19 and under who already has an established shirt for milan, and adu being a "good" teenager who may or may not make a decent impact for benfica in the next couple of years, we'll have to see how it plays out, but regardless it's a big difference. I can see how if you only had seen him at the u20 world cup, then coming into january you might think he was overrated, fair enough, but if you have watched his every game with milan, any notion of him being mostly hype and no substance, should have vanished, imo. I had high expectations having watched some of his matches on torrents from brazil in the summer, and given the reports out of training the first half of the year, and pato has surpassed all those, and done it consistently as well. hard to argue it's a fluke. If you want to argue whether he is as good or better than bojan, or aguero, that is pretty legitimate, but arguing for adu on benfica's bench versus pato who has been the single best player for milan the last 2 months...hard to take it seriously for now. that is not to say adu is not a good player, mind you. i'm not even sure what this means
So you're saying because Adu was chase at 13 years old by big clubs that he has the ability to be great. As far as I remember, Inter was willing to sign him when he was 13 and then Man U and then Chelsea, are you sayin that because these clubs chased him, Adu was destinate for greatness? As far as I know clubs start bashing on him because his mama wouldn't let clubs buy him and that he should at least finish high school. You see the difference between Pato and Adu is that Patu was thrown with the shark right away when Adu didn't and that's exactly why people like you writte Adu's off. Adu show way more skills at last U-20 world cup than Pato did. Pato is a good player, dont get me wrong but just the fact people hype him to be that good makes me say he's not that good and as far as Bojan is concern wut Ive seen from him impress me more than Pato's goal with Milan. Kid got sh*t load of record at the teenage level
pato was internacional's bright light in the summer before he got bought by milan, and with milan he has done excellent, and his influence is far more than his goal and assist numbers say given how milan has had injuries and players around him under performing and struggling. In fact, even though he has 7 goals and i believe 2 assists (I remember the cross to paloschi for sure versus sampdoria last week, but i can't remember off the top of my head if there was another, but i am pretty sure there was, though as kulspruta said, it should be more. Last match he set up seedorf after a great individual play but it was well-saved, and then he flicked on a cross right to seedorf for a wide open shot and it hit the post, and that was just the torino match, roma he beautifully played through seedorf 1v1 and it was cleared off the line, and there are many others), if one only looks at those alone, you would be way underestimating his impact, as he is dropping back and creating on his own, making one man counters, going wide to provide for release valves, drawing fouls and dancing by and attacking defenders and drawing defensive attention.
spazzo at it's greatest I wouldn't try to put compare dos sontos to pato right now cause pato is way ahead, but he did it with apoo WOW.
This is all irrelevant to my point. The point is all the major scouts in the world saw Adu and Pato play at the u-20 WC. But none of the major clubs were chasing Adu. Freddy Adu had been playing in MLS for 3 years prior to the u-20 WC. Scouts want to see how young players do against men. Adu was just a peripheral figure in MLS. Pato was immediately a star when he stepped on the field for Inter in Brazil(which is a much better league than MLS). The u-20 WC can only tell you so much about a player. A perfect example of this is Nicolas Olivera. At the 1997 u-20 WC he was the best player. Better than Riquelme, Henry, Aimar, Cambiasso, Trezeguet, Anelka, Gallas, Owen, etc. But right now all those players are world stars and Oliveira has become an average player playing in Mexico.
I think he already got 3 players red carded. =P Edit: Yeah, that's right. The Napoli guy, Rubinho (would've been a goal) and De Silvestri.
Anyway back to the topic. I would say pato is ahead because Krikic is paying in a very depleted barca team. Once barca is at full strength then if he still shins we can start to compare.
Pato way ahead on Dos Santos? are you serious? Dos Santos is starting in La Liga, a league ,in terms of level, that is WAY ahead of Serie A...anyway I would not try to debate but I'll give it up to the guy who said Adu was not even a major figure in MLS true, he bricked but I still think he got more potential than Pato, just because he's american, we would probably never give that recognition.
Adu has potential, but he's been overhyped and that has been detrimental for his career. If one of Pato, Krikic, Aguero, Dos Santos or Di Maria was American, the hype right now would be unbelievable. Nike is dying for an American soccer superstar.
I never said he started all the game but he started in a couple of game, don't misunderstand wut I said, you need more clarifications?
I don't think so...if they would have been american, they would have never start in any of these leagues believe me, americans don't get recognition as much as Argentine, Brazil, Mexico, or any european country.
So starting a couple of games in La Liga is better than being the best Milan player for the past two months, am I right? Also, La Liga is unquestionably at a higher level than Serie A, no argument, right? Milan also hasn't been on full throtlle of late you know.
You don't think Adu was overhyped? Trust me, with all the attention he got, if he was good enough to play and start at a top team (like Milan, Real, ManU etc) he would be there already.
No I know for a fact he was overhyped, I cant deny it but I mean if these players you named were american believe me they won't be starting for any of theses teams that's what Im saying.
1) Read my post again. It's 25 games for Internacional 2) no senior international appearances because he's Brasilian. He has quite a lot of players to beat in the pecking order: kaka, ronaldinho, adriano, robinho etc etc. He has been called up though 3) He had to miss the first 6 months with Milan because he wasn't 18 yet