Is it me, or does Freddy stay that same age, while the rest of us just keep getting older? Wasn't there a mention somewhere that Freddy was going to get his citizenship right after his supposed 14th birthday? Now he is 13 again? I am willing to bet he got his birth certificate from the same hospital as Danny Almonte. Me thinks he is at least 17...
Rumors... Isn't Freddy the 9 year old who scored Over 5,000 goals in one season... 109 in one game... beat Brazil by himself in an 11-on-1 scrimage... Yeah, he's that kid that actually wears the golden boots he's won from all the World Cups he's played in... isn't he the kid that very few of us have ever seen play... a couple coaches have expessed interest... whose mother turned down an offer from Inter Milan... the media has jumped on as our soccer "savior"... has mentioned playing for DCU in a few years... On another note, Rosa doesn't seem to be very likely to wear a DCU jersey very long either Could it be that MLS is getting so competitive that the international youth might not make it here? Or is it just a matter of money?
SI (who I thought broke the Almonte story) researched Adu's age and the best documentation they could come up with verified the data that is reported. In otherwords, he's not some 17 year old. Plus, he's got at least one (and I thought two though I could be wrong) siblings so you can correlate/match their birth records and see how it all fits. Plus, the issue is NOT that he's phenomenal physically (ie: especially tall or especially big or especially strong or especially fast). It's that he's phenomenal technically, has good vision, and isn't that intimidated by bigger/older players. As for the "13 forever" thing....what happens is among the first media coverage most of us probably saw of Adu was an article that I think the title was "let him be 13". Except it was written when he'd just turned 12 and the closing respost in the article was something to the effect of "geez, at least let the guy celebrate another birthday--let him be a normal kid". So 13 has gotten thrown around for almost 2 years.
SI also mentioned that the USSF has done an investigation into his age and couldn't turn up any evidence either.
Joe is correct in his assessment of Freddy's age and physique in all but one category. Freddy is fast. People looking at Freddy do not think he's older than 13, so there is really no reason to even speculate. Other than the fact that he's from Ghana--which does have this problem--, immigrated to the US, and is very gifted on the soccer field, there isn't anything to give credence to an age question. The exact same rumor could have surfaced over Claudio Reyna or Pablo Mastroeni with the same evidence. I think the Almonte situation is the only real reason soooooooo many people who have never seen him in person are even questioning it. -Tron
Is there someway the site logic can be programmed so that any time someone mentions Freddy's name, the server can automatically make posts that degenerate into groundless speculation about Freddy's age? It would save a few minutes of everyone's time. That way, if I started a "Freddy Adu likes cheeseburgers" thread, for example, I could be assured of having no chance to discuss the actual topic of the thread. I think this would improve the quality of everyone's life by tenfold.