I'm not sure given he had several bad knee injuries from which he really never recovered. I remember at one point he was the top talent in the Ajax academy. It's sad when injuries take these players away from us.
Fair enough, I didnt hear about the recent injuries. 2020 is almost coming to a close though, so we need a few candidates. Please post your choices
I don't know. Freddy Adu set a pretty high bar with the hype. I think that Royston Drenthe reached that level also, what with his move to Real Madrid before even becoming a regular in the Eredivisie. It seems that Adam Maher never reached the lofty predictions placed on him.
Drenthe blew all his millions and is now bankrupt: https://www.ad.nl/nederlands-voetbal/royston-drenthe-failliet-verklaard~a0d43ed5/
Wow... poor guy. Drenthe is so winning this race that this should be called "The Royston Drenthe award for the ultimate underachiever"
What is the name of the Portuguese MF who just like Drenthe had a great Euro tournament when he was 17 and then signed a big contract with Bayern? He has been shuffling around and I don't even know where he is playing right now. He could be a candidate.
Okay, here is an update on Royston Drenthe, the front runner for the Freddy Adu Award. He has signed to play with Racing Murcia FC of Spain's 4th tier (Tercera Division). The Tercera Division has 360 teams divided into 18 regional groups! Currently Racing Murcia lead Group B of Group 13 by 1 point after 9 matches. If they win promotion, they will move up to Segunda B, the 3rd level in Spain, which has only 102 teams in 10 sub-divisions. Guys, the way back to Real Madrid and the Dutch NT starts in Murcia!! https://www.sportbible.com/football...has-not-kept-in-shape-after-transfer-20210108 The brother of Paul Pogba is also at the same club. https://us.soccerway.com/teams/spain/murcia-city/46793/
Freddy Adu was never fast and that wasn't his game. It was all about what to do with the ball, which he did very well. He just didn't like to train and pretty much stayed out of shape for his whole adult career, and didn't put in the effort needed to succeed.
I saw him play as a youth and then when he was first with DC United. As a youth player he was outstanding because he had skills way beyond his age group. Unfortunately, there are a great many examples of this throughout the world and as players reach professional age, they need to have strength, speed, quickness, and an ability to see the field. Adu's lack of speed and quickness at the professional level is what doomed him to mediocrity. We could all see that in the early days with DC United. One wonders if Naci Unuvar at Ajax will go down the same road. He was amazing in the youth ranks.
Wow... I didn't realize that many kids left early in their teens for a greener pasture. Pick you favorite!
A lot of those moved to England as 16 year olds for money. With England out of the EU, that won't happen any longer.
Different country, same mojo. Zirkzee went to Bayern and hasnot developed at all. Decades ago there was a Feyenoord central defender in the youth, who was stolen by Bayern. Beckenbauer talked about the next Frank Rijkaard. Never heared about him since.
There's a reason why we disproportionally from our population numbers and number of young people paying football have stars. It all has to do with the gametime given at the age of 17-21 years.
Just curious. Has anyone done a study whether Portugal produces more top flight football players than the Dutch. Both countries are similar in population and both have good NTs.
without a doubt Portugal. the difference between both is the dutch often fail too make the transition from the eredivisie to other big leagues while portugal has had far greater success in this aspect. Bruno fernandes, Joao felix, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Neves, upand coming, Francisco Trincão, Pedro Neto, Diego Jota, Rafael Leão. the list is long their success can also be attributed to production line of talents which all three sporting, Porto and benfica continue to produce in youth ranks and with the trio featuring in CL and EL season after season, has been an excellent stepping stone for the players . the other aspect would be to that of the Brazilian influence in the league making it more competitive compared to eredivisie. again you cant look no further to this at Shakhtar Donetsk. also credit to Nuno Espírito Santo present day who has transformed wolves team with the Portuguese contingent and this again has being a good stepping stone for the players at both club and international level.. lastly you also have to give credit to Fernando Santos who has been at the helm for portgual since 2014. he is master tactician as well and with the current generation they future looks bright.