Adu and the MLS A little over a month ago the talks were extremely serious and seemed to close to official. People were discussing and Freddy's advisor even mentioned the MLS buying his contract to keep him in the States until he is 18 years old and is eligible to play over seas (Europe). Would you rather.... 1) Have Freddy play four years in the MLS, fill stadiums across the country and gain first team experience. 2) See Freddy move to England where he will be training and playing reserve footie until his 18th birthday. However, the training and practice competition will be much more experienced filled and he will be surrounded by some of the best players in the world, ultimately benefitting the USMNT in the future. This is a tough decision in my book because either way I think the kid is going to be the best USMNT player we've had by the time his career is over but at the same time I think he can accomplish this quicker if he trains with the best. But I'm also an MLS fanatic and think it would be AMAZINGLY positive for the league to have him showcasing in the states.
MLS is a great place for Freddy to grow, and to build up the profile of the sport in America, and around the world. It's MLS for four years for me.
I don't know if this is possible, but I'd like to see him signed by a top club, practice with them as much as possible and be sent to the MLS on loan for a couple of years, maybe until he's 16 or 17. Then he can play on their reserve side for a year or two to get used to their game until he's ready to play for their top team.
Don't know if there are certain rules prohibiting the following but here goes. Since the bulk of the European season is during MLS off-season: Sign and play the full season with MLS. Go train in Europe (maybe in England the first year, Spain the second, etc.) during each MLS offseason. Year round football for this youngster. This is, of course, until the youngster hits 18. I think until he is 18 he should try and taste it all.
Earn a great rep in MLS until he can go elsewhere for big bucks. Then, he can play on some great team and earn really big bucks. MLS will have benefitted from his presence and from the hopefully high transfer fee.
I'd like to see him in MLS, and hopefully the MLS can make some cash from the transfer free. Play with DC United for a few years before setting off for Europe. Then again, I really don't care. Whatever he and his family decide should be good enough for all of us. (But then, if we subscribed to that logic 95% of the posts on BS would disappear.)
develop and train the MLS until he is 18. By then he will hopefully be running through opposing midfields and defenses at will. Then make the jump to Europe and have an immediate impact. Somehow I dont think Europe will prepare him at this stage in his development any better than MLS will. 18+ is a different story...
Tsk..Tsk...tsk.. Naive...naive...naive WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH YA ALL PEOPLE ???Can people see what's going on ?? Are we dumber that DUMB AND DUMBER??? All this euro clubs are playing a cheap bit on a 10 to 1000 that they can repeat what Bayer Leverkusen did with Donovan...MAKE FEW MILLIONS!! or may be better ....Without investing a penny on ....USA soccer need to smart it up and find the way to collect on our developed players ....
First-team ball in MLS is MUCH better preparation than playing in the reserves in Europe. Eddie Lewis scored a goal a game in Fulham's reserves. I don't remember him ever scoring at anywhere near that rate in MLS.
Agreed. I think that people falsely believe that MLS is a joke of some sort. some decent soccer is being played here and Freddy would develop better against these men than at some youth team or reserve team in England in unfamiliar surroundings.
Yes and no. If Freddy signs for an MLS team, he likely will be a starter once he is physically mature enough to handle the tackling. Once he becomes a starter, he really does not have to do much to keep his starting position. For some players, this leads to stagnation (witness some of our young stars). If he plays for a reserve team in England, he has to improve by quite a bit to become a first team player. Once he starts for the first team, he will have to keep playing well to keep his starting position. There is just a lot more competition for starting positions in the better leagues and this tends to drive the players more.
Re: Tsk..Tsk...tsk.. Naive...naive...naive what exactly did bayer leverkusen do to donovan? and before you shoot your mouth stupidly, try to figure out how long donovan was there at an age old enough to play in the bundesliga cat got your tounge?
If Adu is signed by a European club I'm sure he'd get a lot of practice time in with the top team, which I'd say is much better preperation than with a MLS club. So regardless of him playing with the reserve side for a year or two he'd still get world-class level training. Look at our national team guys in the MLS right now, if our Donovans, Beasleys, Mathiss, etc had the urgency of competing for a starting position day in and day out it would improve their game. But, the fact that these guys can play lacksadaisically in practice is working to stagnate their abilities. Having our top guys play in Europe won't negatively affect the MLS's talent level either, the MLS guys will start to understand what it takes to be a world-class player and raise their games if they ever want to see time with the USMNT.
It is difficult to track down archived reserve team stats, but in his final season with Fulham, Eddie Lewis was tearing up the reserves. He was very close to a goal per game, yet Jean Tigana refused to select him. He gave him one first team game late in the season, basically as an excuse to prevent him from going to the Gold Cup (Arena's infamous Tigana is a jerk tirade). It was unclear why he would not select him, if only as a squad player. Interestingly enough, Jovan Kirovski scored a goal a game in the Man Utd reserves in his last season with the club ('96 I think). You can verify that on his profile at soccernet.com (just look under his profile at the Birmingham page). Unfortunately, first division players don't merit a profile (although Eddie Lewis had one until last year).
I pick four years in MLS for two reasons, A). I would get to see him play regularly!, and, B). MLS gets a nice transfer fee. Also, Freddy seems to want to be near his mother, and, as mature as he seems to be, he is only 14. I think the kid should think about other factors than strictly soccer-related criteria at his age.
both? Obviously, no one can have both. However, Freddy could do as other players have done and take advantage of the fact that MLS and Euro seasons are different, and he could work out with an EPL season during MLS off-season. I'm sure several EPL squads, hungry for an 18-year old Frddy, would be more than happy to set something like that up.
Let's be honest here. None of us are talking about having Freddy here when he is 21 or 22. We're talking about having him at 15-17. And during those years he is VERY unlikely to get a starters position in the EPL. It is much more likely that he would be languishing on a youth side during all that time. And what would you rather have ........ Freddy beating up on English youth, or Freddy "languishing" in MLS? Sorry, I'll take his development against the men in MLS until he can ship himself off, over playing against the outclassed kids in the UK any day of the week.
Without a source, this just isn't credible. If a winger like Lewis had been scoring goals at that pace, it would be written down somewhere. One of the Yanks Abroad trackers would be all over it.
Stop you are making too much sense.. I just dont understadn how people can think he should go abroad at this young age. Not only is it free publicity for the MLS, he needs to develop as a person also. Skillwise he will do just as well here developing his skils as abroad until he is older... Besides, as far as I know, no one has figured out how to get around the EU passport issue...
You can be a pedant about it if you want. Here are some sample blurbs that show that Eddie indeed had some fine matches for the reserve side. He did not always play as a pure winger for the reserve team. More a winger cum forward. Note also that he got two shots on goal in 20 minutes plus change. http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2000/mar22.htm http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2001/feb12.htm http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2001/dec20.htm http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2002/aug27a.htm Just about any time you look in one of the American Abroads blurbs, Eddie was scoring or assisting on a goal - he didn't even do half bad (scoring and assisting) when he was playing in the first team (though that was generally when Fulham were in Division 1 and especially before Tigana took over as coach).
There was also another time in his final season with Fulham that he scored a hat trick for the reserves, then followed it up with two goals in each of the next two games (that's 7 goals in 3 games!) and there was a good amount of outrage on BS that he didn't even make the bench after that.
You can call it "being pedantic," but the original poster was using Eddie Lewis's goalscoring to claim that all of English reserve soccer is a joke. That argument collapses when the only goals you can unearth were scored against Oxford United reserves and Swindon Town reserves. Most Premiership reserve teams don't play against such lowly competition.