Haven't had a chance to go to Florida https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/i-just-saw-freddy-adu-at-a-strip-club-in-tampa.1113663/
Please don't put Suarez and Adu in the same sentence... it hurts me. I'm glad the Adu guys have mostly come around. It was kind of a bummer to see how hard they took the dawning realization, though, I won't lie. There was an honesty in their sadface emoticons that really struck a chord. In any event I'm sure gmonn and Ben4USA or whatever his name was are still carrying that torch. Anyways, yeah. Farewell Adu. We hardly knew ye. Good luck in your second career. Stop digging, you've hit gold! If you don't get it by now, you're never going to get it. Aduesque gets it... sure, it took 7 years, but he got it. There's nothing more to say.
Not sure what this has to do with old man Adu, and as much as this pains me as an Earthquakes fan, challenge accepted: In 2013 starting 15 games with Chivas and New England, Agudelo had 9 goals in 1402 minutes, or a goal every 156 minutes (a goal or assist every 127 minutes). In 2013 starting 29 games with San Jose, Wondolowski had 11 goals in 2610 minutes, or a goal every 237 minutes (a goal or assist every 186 minutes). Agudelo took 30 shots and scored 9 goals, Wondo took 101 shots (44 shots on goal) to score 11 goals. And of course Agudelo is 10 years younger and getting moved from team to team while Wondo is a golden boot winning DP and the focal point of the Quakes attack... How exactly is that Wondo "cleaning his clock"?
Freddy is still training or at least trying to put off that appearance. His instagram posted a little video of him doing some running on a field with soccer goals in the background.
I don't think his age is really that relevant nor do I think it's worth a LOL. He was showing great skill against adults and people above his age.
Yup. He basically never played in his own age group, so even if he shaded his age a few years, it didn't matter. He was 14 when on the U17 team. He was 17 when he joined the U20 team. He was a teen when playing in MLS. Add two or three years to his published age and it makes no difference. There is plenty to critique Adu about. Plenty. He age isn't one of them.
For all we know... Whatever, I was just kidding. Not gonna turn this into an age thing. As you said there are much more important factors that have determined his career trajectory.
As you say, Adu's skill translated to a higher level, but that wasn't the only thing about him that grabbed people's attention. As an example, look at the way he was able to accelerate and leave the Korean U17 defenders in the dust. Regardless of his actual age, one of the things that hurt him is that other players caught up with him physically and then overtook him. He still has tremendous passing ability, but no longer being able to run past defenders really limited his game.
So based on 1 unsubstantiated post from 5 years ago you have concluded that he prefers strip clubs to video games and will be broke by 40? If Adu has managed to amass >$12MM in assets between the ages of 14 to 24 he must have strong financial planning in place. One should be able to get at least 7% to per annum on that even if he does not make another dime. I suspect he will be just fine on $850K per year for the rest of his life.
And as we've said, there was no benefit to Adu to lie about his age as a youngster. What...............people think he really wanted to shred little Uzbek kids at the U17 World Cup? As we know, a non-Euro passport kid like Adu can only move abroad when he turns 18 (like Junior Flores and Rubio Rubin recently). If Freddy was actually older than advertised he could have moved to Europe (and hit the big salary jackpot) much earlier than when he actually went as an 18 year old in 2007. If Freddy is really older than he advertised, I'm convinced he didn't know anything about it. I would agree with everything you say. However in his year with the Union he did show that he was an above average MLS player. Not an All-Star, but a good player. The fact that the guy can't find a club doesn't make much sense. Even if he just sent out recordings of his Union performances, there should be clubs out there in Belgium or Greece or Scandinavia or MLS or BundII that would be interested. He trained at a club that everybody knew he couldn't get a work permit to play for (Blackpool) and that's been it. It's a mystery to me. It really does make me think that its his heart that's the biggest problem. People can argue and debate his on-the-field attributes, but I'm not sure that really means anything. It's the intangibles like desire, work ethic, etc. that are the problem. There are some dreary players in MLS that make >100k a year. And Freddy Adu can't find teams in that league to take chance on him? On the face of it...................it makes no sense.
Freddy does not have the physical gifts needed to be successful in today's matches. I believe he has lowest measurable in the USMNT pool both endurance (VO2 Max) and explosion (sprint and interval).
i personally watch soccer for the running, especially at intervals, bonus if they can do it over a long period of time... he is probably the finest dribbler ever to play for the US, by a wide margin. Easily the most gifted passer as well. he's lazy and probably started too early, but give the boy his props, he's magic on the touch line, first touch, attacking passes and creative 'moments.'
I don't agree with the first statement - I'd probably say Tab Ramos is the best Yank dribbler I've seen even though my heart wants to give it to Clint Mathis. Freddy just isn't successful enough with his tricks. Heck Dempsey is better for me because he's more succesful. I don't agree with the second either. I do think his touch on the ball is probably the best which is maybe what you are getting at, but easily most gifted passer? He has his moments, but so do a number of our best players - Landon, Reyna, Mathis, Job, etc.
Good to know why you watch, unfortunately most of the current coaches including the USMNT head coach have a different view on the importance of running: listen starting at 10:00 "...soccer eventually is a running game..." http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/04/18/09/30/140418-road-to-the-roster-ep6 I agree on Adu's attributes, including his dribbling and passing skills. I disagree that he is lazy.
Donovan as the greatest all around soccer player. Clint Mathis as the most spectacular finisher. Dempsey as the most effective footballer. Tab Ramos? Maybe the most graceful player, but Freddy is a level of magnitude higher on the ball. Reyna as the most consistent footballer. JOB as the best box to box, though Bradley is getting there.