Dubbed to Be the Next Pele, Here’s How USMNT Wonderkid Lost Track of Soccer

Sports is full of mind-blowing stories, although most are happy and full of hope some are just the opposite. This is the story of Freddy Adu. A soccer player who lit the stadiums being the youngest on the team, yet failed to capitalize on his skills. Dubbed the young Pele he had a promising career ahead of him. However, since they exposed him to professional soccer at such a young age, he hardly had time to cope with his situation. They lost him in the ever-changing world of soccer and this is his story.

Adu became the youngest player to debut for the USMNT in 2006 at the Ripe age of 16. He had already played in MLS for two years at this point. Appearing in 87 matches unbeknownst to him, that was the most he was going to play for any team. The promising young star had arrived. Getting drafted into MLS at the age of 14 would be a dream for many. However, a 14-year-old boy playing senior soccer is just terrifying to even think about.

Soccer lost its next pele

At the age of 33, he now looks back at his career and thinks about what he could have done if he would have made a few right decisions. In a 17-year-long professional soccer career, he had played for 10 teams if we don’t count loans. In a recent talk with Sportbible, Adu laid down many regrets he had from his low soccer career. However, he did talk about having aspirations for playing again.

In his recent interview, he said, “Being the highest paid had its responsibilities. I had to go to the games beforehand to sign up and say hello. It was tough. At the end of the day, at that age, you have to play and my teammates were twice my age, and I didn’t have much in common with them. I made a mistake leaving Benfica. I was better than [Angel] Di María, but there were a lot of distractions at Monaco and I played badly.”

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It is a huge loss to soccer, watching a young star who had a promising future in the game. But, when it came to proving himself on the stage, he lacked what it takes to be great.

The promising career that never became a reality

Freddy Adu started MLS with DC United. After his contract got over, he switched to the Real salt lake just for a detour for a year as he was about to turn 18 and be able to play in Europe. He stayed with Benfica for 5 years, but for 4 years he was on load to multiple clubs over the tenure. Adu came back to MLS again and played 2 good seasons with Philadelphia Union but, then strangely, decided to move to Brazil.

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He believed Brazilian soccer was more of his style however, he would make many appearances after that. He only appeared in 36 matches over 8 years. The fall from grace that no one would have thought about back in his early soccer days.