This thread must by now have reached the Pantheon of All-Time BigSoccer Threads deserved of a place in Valhalla. Am I wrong? Can some old timer think of one more deserving?
It wasn't Adu who was a joke. It was the American fans who put the savior of American soccer burden on him who was the joke.
That joke has continued for 10 years. Overhyping players when they're barely starting is as American as apple pie (which was actually invented in England).
It’s nice to see that Adams has the self awareness to recognize the fact that at this point in his career he hasn’t accomplished anything more than Adu had at a similar time. That humility should serve him well.
All I know is that Freddy needs to find a team. I have been more impressed with his doggedness at remaining a pro soccer player during these lean times than his early glory days. Go Freddy!
Transfer tracker has been sitting there like that for a month. Incidentally, now you know where Eric Avila plays.
If I can recall back in the day, there was the long standing thread of "When will American Soccer arrive?" and that thread was around and trafficked often before the '01 Hex.
Freddy wasn't the only underwhelming first draft pick, though things seem to have picked up recently. 2005 – Nikolas Besagno: 8 MLS appearances 2006 – Marvell Wynne: 5 caps in an 11 year MLS career 2007 – Maurice Edu: played for Rangers and Stoke 2008 – Chance Myers: 8 years at RSL but unemployed since 2017 2009 – Steve Zakuani: retired at 26 due to injury 2010 – Danny Mwanga: unemployed at 27 2011 – Omar Salgado: El Paso's #1 signing 2012 – Andrew Wenger: retired at 28 2013 – Andrew Farrell: Revs starting center-back 2014 – Andre Blake: starting keeper at the Union 2015 – Cyle Larin: 3 goals in 10 Europa League appearances this season 2016 – Jack Harrison: perma-loan until an EFL team will fork out $5M 2017 – Abu Danladi MLS Rookie of the Year 2017, injury plagued in 2018 2018 – João Moutinho transferred to Orlando after 9 appearances for LAFC
Thinking about Freddy Adu this evening, as one does. This SI article from 2003 is an incredibly interesting read. https://t.co/kPDGROPWrF— Mark (@MAD__Mark) January 30, 2019 Here’s a perspective read. Make yourself a PB&J. The pre-Pele, pre-Campbell Soup days. Think about the kids that we have now, all around the world. I can’t even name every 16-year old we have at Bayern. There’s a dozen kids a year offered what Freddy was back then in 2002-2003 famously by Inter. How naively we shoved him into the euro grinding wheel 16 years ago. I happen to think Freddy was pretty good and we ruined him. Nothing more or less. And his legacy is partially who comes now and how (relatively) easily they manage their come-up.
In my opinion if he had taken the 500,000 Inter offered him when he was 12 we would be talking about Freddy as being one of our best players ever. Inter would have protected him from 13-18 and he would of had to develop a work ethic.
OMG, I've finally cracked the mystery behind what happened to Freddy: " In an attempt to connect Freddy with mentors, IMG has also set up hang time for him with Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams, retired track legend Michael Johnson and soccer star Clint Mathis."
Maybe I'm just old but I would credit Harkes or Ramos for starting it all (representing 'merica in Europe.)
Wynalda in Germany, Tab in Spain, yep. Agree on Harkes. I think for a generation of young players today, their consciousness of Freddy as a role model was the start of the idea of American soccer players being global stars, even though it hasn’t reached actualization yet. Or is barely starting to.