742: AMERICAN SOCCER: Much Adu abou

by : Ashley Michael

If the name Freddy Adu means nothing to you then take it on board now. At the tender age of fourteen he is the great hope of American soccer, a wonderkid who was the best paid player in Major League Soccer even before he made his debut. He has already been described as the new Pele, hardly damning him with faint praise, and has had offers from the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Inter. He has, however, turned these down in order to begin his career in the USA.

It is a decision that makes sense, not just for Adu but also for the MLS. Despite the success of the national team, reaching the quarter finals of the last World Cup before unluckily losing to Germany, football (or soccer) has yet to really take off in the USA. It is a story familiar to many of the ‘lesser’ leagues – fans preferring to watch the higher standards of the top European league on satellite television and players aiming to get noticed and get out. Freddy Adu might just help change all that.

For the first time there is a genuine interest in the MLS. The so-called ‘Freddy effect’ has seen a dramatic increase in both crowds and media interest and the American obsession with winners now has a footballer to focus on. All this despite the fact that Adu has, unsurprisingly, yet to achieve anything of note.

By beginning his career in the MLS Adu will get the chance to play regular first team football straight away, something that simply would not happen in Europe. For all his obvious talents, he still has much to learn and playing against more experienced players will help him achieve this. In a year or two, when he has become accustomed to centre halves wrestling him off the ball and giving him a sly kick when the referee is not looking, it will be time to move on and to better himself in a league of a higher standard.

For the sake of football in America it is important for the MLS to make the most of what they have, while they still have it. They need to make sure that children that come one week to watch Freddy Adu play will return the next week to watch the likes of Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley. Both players excelled at the World Cup but have not since moved to bigger clubs and the return of Donovan, after several unproductive seasons in Germany with Leverkusen, was seen as a major coup for the MLS. Being brought up on football of a higher standard, the next generation of American players will need to be that much better, hopefully producing talent good enough to go abroad and make an impact, something only really achieved so far by the goalkeepers Friedel, Keller and Howard.

Whether Freddy Adu will become the new Pele very much remains to be seen. His talents are there for all to see but the football landscape is scattered with the wreckage of so many ‘next big things’. Consider some of English football’s brightest talents of the past few years: Joe Cole has made little impact at Chelsea, Wayne Rooney has struggled for form all season and Francis Jeffers is seemingly unwanted by two different clubs at once. While Adu seems to possess the maturity that the likes of Paul Gascoigne have always lacked (he has already mastered giving the press utterly banal quotes about how he just wants the team to succeed), there will come a time when he will be tempted by all that being a star offers. How he deals with temptation will be the making or breaking of him. One thing, however, is already clear. In football terms he is not yet a star. In the eyes of America, however, he most definitely is.

Ashley Michael
20/04/2004