In one conversation, Arena told me: "This may be our first superstar. Maybe this is the guy." Ohmygawd, does this mean Landon Donovan isn't a bonafide superstar? Someone better tell Ty Keough.
Emelia Adu: "I want Freddy to go to college. He has to take care of his schooling. I want him to get a good education and play soccer. Sometimes Freddy wants to concentrate more on soccer than his education. I've noticed that. But he can do both, right?" This would be a mistake. He should turn pro. He can go to college later if he washes out.
Here's the big news is this story, IMO Is Freddy really 13? It's the most common question I hear when people ask me about Freddy: "How can that kid be 13?" SI looked into it, going so far as to hire two people in Ghana who checked at Bengali Hospital in Tema (Freddy's birthplace) and at Ghana's national birth and death registry. We found no evidence that would disprove Freddy's stated birthdate of June 2, 1989. Indeed, 2 June 1989 was the date on the official record of Freddy's birth at Ghana's national birth/death registry in Accra. (Granted, the document was filed in 1996, a year before the Adus came to the U.S., but that's nothing out of the ordinary in a country that is woefully disorganized when it comes to official records.) As for Bengali Hospital, SI's investigation turned up no records of Freddy's birth there -- again, not a surprise given the level of disorganization. Here's my take on the age issue: If anyone is going to allege that Freddy and his family are misrepresenting his age, then you have to provide legitimate evidence (read: documents) to back it up. Otherwise, I don't want to hear about it, because we looked harder than anyone else has and didn't find any chicanery. As many know, I've been guardedly skeptical of Freddy's age. It's sort of like before I accepted God - I wanted to beleive, I just couldn't get over some lingering doubts. Finally, I just had to realize why they called it faith and took a leap of one. Not that I'm comparing Freddy to God or anything.... at least not yet! If SI looked and couldn't find it, then it's good enough for me and I have no more questions. Afterall, these are the same guys that dug around and found the real 411 on Danny Almonte. So, if SI didn't find it, either A) he really is 13 or B) he isn't but there is no proof out there, anywhere, that says otherwise so it might as well be true. From my perspective, unless information to the contrary is provided, the age issue is now dead.
Even Argentina's sports daily Ole has an article on Freddy Adu. It's located at: http://www.ole.clarin.com/ and the article is entitled: Ghana, golea y gusta (a play on words between Adu's homeland and the Spanish word 'gana' which means wins. 'golea' means scores goals and 'gusta' means delights.) I really haven't been paying too much attention to all the Adu stories until recently but it's pretty noteworthy when a daily like Ole even talks about the youngster. But we should withhold judgment on him until we've actually seen him play.
I like that the kid has his hopes set high and wants to be the best he can be. MLS to age 17/18 sounds good to me. Party on!
What they need is to have a financial planner sit down with his mother and since he'll probably live at home(is he not from the greater Washington DC suburbs?), have them create an educational fund for Freddy for later on just in case he needs it.
Re: Re: Wahl on some youth player... Agreed. Of course if he goes on to play well for the USA in the U17 World Cup as a 13 year old... this educational fund may be taken care of with the deposit of 1 endorsement check from Gatorade or Nike.
It's articles like this that make me believe this is all some elaborate practical joke like that April Fools story SI did on the prodigal pitcher years back. But it's true. Like American40 posted, this is also of big interest to me. Freddy's lil bro wants to play for the US now...instead of Ghana like before. quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to both Freddy and his mother, Fredua Akoto (Freddies little brother) also hopes to play for the U.S. (as opposed to Ghana) someday. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fantasic Article Kudos to Grant Wahl for a great article. This is THE definitive Adu article, every one who has interest in this kid should read it. The most informative, trustworthy, and interesting article I've read on the topic. I look forward to reading the SI version.
Here's a small article from Spain. Except they think it's just media hype. http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/20030104/NOTICIA52555728.html Today's futbol is incredible. A 13 year old boy scores a few goals for the Potomac Cougars and they are going crazy for him. Freddy Adu was born in Ghana and Inter Milan wants him. Almost nobody has seen him, but USA Today and Newsweek have written articles about him, now the whole world is talking and they don't stop. Such is the power of the USA mass media.
It's amazing what a strong run of results can do for you We've got a much better shot of winning the whole thing sooner than Ghana does.
Spain will doubt him, but I remeber him saying he wants to play in Siere A (sp?) or La Liga. If he goes to La Liga and tears it up, he will be the second coming in their media.
I can't believe the bigsoccer password actually worked on this site... To think i was just taking a leap of faith due to my laziness
Sidd Finch? I think that was the guy's name. Played for the Mets, threw a 195mph fastball that required Gary Carter to put extra padding in his glove. Good call! I was thinking the same thing (and the same article) when I first heard of this kid. But the Chicago Fire's scrubs seem to have heard of him.
Wow. He's written, as someone already said, the definitive Freddie article in the same week that he acknowledged Tubby Smith as college basketball's best coach. I nominate Grant for Sportswriter of the Week.
hey grant, if you are out there... will there be any pictures in the print edition of SI with the story?
Ya, my roommate just got the print version, and there are some pictures. One picture that particularly stuck out to me was him up next to his U-17 teammates, and he sure didn't look as old as has teammates. Another thing of note is that it was part of a three-article feature on young players. The article on Freddy was twice as long as the articles on some young shortstop in the Mets organization and a European center.