Freddy Adu: Too much, too young for 'wonderkid'?

[Del]

Anyone remember this fella

Was the "Next big thing" nearly 10 years ago, Seems to have all gone a bit wrong for the lad (Still loaded though)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20184398

 

[Ring master]

Ha how could you forget about him,cant believe that 10 years has gone that fast since they said he will be the next big thing though,all news on him over the years seems to have gone Quieter and Quieter to me

 

[sheeds]

There were always stories about his age being fake and I know somewhat unusually he failed to grow in height after 14 , it's certainly been amazing how he's moved around and consistently failed to achieve or often even appear

 

[Deleted member 28206]

He loves orange soda

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Thought he was still doing a trial at The Cliff tbh.

 

[- Bradders -]

He used to be boss on FM...

Can't have been easy with all that pressure from such a young age.

 

[EFCNIK]

How can there be so much hype around a kid of 14?! Americans are idiots. Completely ruined whatever potential he had.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Can't understand why the pressure was cranked up tbh, if he was any good then they would've nailed him down like they did with Landon.

 

[BlueLlama]

Remember him well, poor lad. Was a boss buy on FM, FIFA etc for a couple of years tho

 

[Tubey]

How can there be so much hype around a kid of 14?! Americans are idiots. Completely ruined whatever potential he had.

I bought into it myself. It was based on him destroying his own age groups on YouTube vids.

Looked nailed on to be the next Messi - it taught me to distrust limited videos of footballers for life!

 

[CahillsCornerFlag]

Funny how he seems to think he's boss and the media and manager don't think much of him.

 

[Hellerad]

He stopped developing his game at age 15. He has always had, and still has, great ball skills. But he never knew how to read a game and he lacks the athleticism to make up for it. He can unlock a defense with a good pass (like during his limited appearances in the 2011 Gold Cup, see below) but his ego is too big for his ability.

[video=youtube;OuiYiurKslI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuiYiurKslI&feature=related[/video]

 

[ToffeeBlueNose]

one of the reasons why fans shouldn't hype up and expect too much of the youngsters no matter how good they look *cough*Ross Barkley*cough*. Let them develop with proper coaching and taught the failings if you don't keep working hard.

 

[pfim]

I usually don't buy into the too much too soon stuff. Eventually talent rises to the top. But the guy is quite delusional in the belief of his abilities and what he has produced to this point. Have to think it's only the product of too much, too soon.

He has obvious talent, you can see it. But he plays the way he wants to, all the time, and he's very much belligerent about it.

It kind of reminds me of the mentality someone like Daniel Sturridge has. You can't convince him that the way he plays just isn't good enough, he feels like he's a victim of circumstance.

I don't really know where he goes from here, because I think Philly is done with him and no one else in the league is going to touch him at that price.

 

[Rook]

There is no reason why at the very least he should have become SWP or a Ji Sung Park. Next to Donovan he had the most natural ability that I ever saw from a US player. At the U-19 world cup, I saw a bunch of matches in Canada. Kun Aguero was the best player there, and Freddy was the 2nd best however Adu was by far the most exciting. About 3-4 times a match you'd hear the crowd collectively go OHHHHHH. He could beat anyone on the wing, score from the wing and his crosses were sick.

Unfortunately in his own words he always fancied himself to be the next Kaka (he said this at 21 hoofing it in god knows where then - it wasn't some pie in the sky comment by a 15-16 year old) and wanted to play attacking mid. He was absolutely terrible at attacking mid (DMs and CBs would easily just gang up on him and nudge the little man aside easily + while his crosses were great his through balls in the midfield were a waste of everybody's time -- Coleman is quality but imagine Coleman as an attacking mid, that's Adu) and wouldn't listen to coaching. If placed out on the wing, he'd just cut inside, get dispossessed easily and leave a nice 30-40 yards of wide open space for opponents to counter with.

The US was good enough to win that U-19 WC but they lost to Austria, why? Well after setting up Altidore for the 1st goal after beating a man and putting in a cross to Jozy for the goal; Freddy decided that he wasn't going to play wing anymore and set up shop in the midfield. It was a disaster, Austria scored one to tie it up and with Freddy running the midfield got another in the OT pretty much by letting Adu hand them the ball and working the counter down the space where Adu should have been.

Sadly he never learned either. When called up for the USMNT, you'd see flashes that he should be penciled in as a starter but after a few minutes into the match he reverts to his own ways. Donovan didn't live up to his potential early because for a while he hated football. Adu IMO is just uncoachable. Its either that or he was in his 20s when he was 13.