Adu, once, mentioned the name not only of Singaporean male singers, nor of the basketball superstar who joined the Warriors, but of a 14-year-old American soccer prodigy.
Freddie Adu, born in Ghana, Africa in 1989, immigrated to the United States with his mother who received a green card at the age of eight and began his football education. In January 2004, at the age of 14 and a half, Adu became famous. Major League Soccer is similar to the NBA, using the draft to select young players, that year's draft, Washington United, who held the title of the champion, did not hesitate to choose Adu, and the talented midfielder got his first professional contract. You know, the later Captain America, Dempsey, was picked out with the 8th pick in that convention.
On April 3, 2004, Adu made his major league debut, becoming the youngest player in the history of professional sports in the United States. Just 14 days later, Adu scored a goal against the Metstars, setting a new record for the youngest goal scorer in the major leagues. He made 30 appearances in his rookie season, scoring five goals and assisting three times.
At this time, Adu was really beautiful, at the age of 15 he locked in the main force of the team, and in his two years with Washington United, he scored 11 goals in 87 appearances. He was twice named to the Major League All-Star Team, was invited to Manchester United for a trial, and was nominated for The World Young Player of the Year in 2005. Even off-the-field life went smoothly, falling in love with teenage singer Joanna Levensk.
In the 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 World Youth Championships, Adu participated as an important member of the American team, and also participated in the Beijing Olympic Games, in the U17 and U20 levels, Adu from the age of 14 to 20 years old to play invincible. He was the first hat-tricker at the U17 World Youth Championship and made 48 appearances for the U17 and U20 national teams, scoring a staggering 32 goals. The world exclaimed that the new ball king was born, and even Pele himself said when he saw the talented teenager who looked a little similar to him, "He will be the next Pele".
However, all the goodness came to an abrupt end, as if he had been poisoned by Bailey's poisonous curse, and Adu fell like a meteor. Benfica brought the 18-year-old Adu to Europe for $2 million, where he didn't get any chances at the Portuguese Super League giants. For four years, Adu was loaned to Monaco and the Belém of the Portuguese First Division, and then to the Greek and Turkish leagues. However, there is no place for Adu to regain the feeling he felt in the big league, and his performance is far less than expected.
In 2011, he was returned to the United States to join Philadelphia United. During his two years here, he was able to play as a substitute on an intermittent basis, but he has since been completely forgotten. He wandered to Bahia, Brazil, Andia, Serbia, where he couldn't play all season and had to stay on trials with multiple teams. He signed for Gubis in Finland in 2015, but only represented the reserve team in finland's fourth division. Finally, Adu came to the 12th team of his career, the Tampa Bay Mob of the North American Football League, and finally stabilized.
As for the reasons for Adu's fame and fall, some people say that this is the most classic case of "injury Zhongyong" in football in the past decade, playing fierce professional competitions when he was 14 years old and his physical and mental development was not yet mature, and his premature fame made him sink. However, more people believe that tampering with age is a more reasonable explanation. His experience is a mystery, from a 14-year-old teenager genius to a crowd in his 20s, this is the story of Adu's transformation from a future ball king back to an ordinary player.