Adu taking the stage

Setting the record straight on U.S. soccer's prodigy

In this week's Sports Illustrated you'll find a story I wrote on Freddy Adu, the 13-year-old prodigy of American soccer.

I spent three days with Freddy in December at the IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., where he has been based for the past year as part of the residency camp for the top 30 players under the age of 17 in the United States. Their road to next August's under-17 world championship begins next Wednesday, when Freddy and mates take the field in Guatemala for the first game of their regional qualifying tournament.

Hardcore American soccer fans have been looking forward to March 5 for a while now. For one, Freddy (a Ghana native who only gained his U.S. passport two weeks ago) will be making his U.S. debut in an official FIFA tournament, which will bind him permanently to the U.S. in future international competition. Second, people are curious to find out: Just how good is the kid who has created more excitement than any youth player in the history of American soccer?

Still, the fact remains: Freddy is only 13. All sorts of myths and half-truths have sprung up about him on Internet message boards, a lot of which I'm trying to clear up in SI and in this column. Here goes:

Who is Freddy Adu? The basics: Born in Ghana, Freddy emigrated to Potomac, Md., with his family in 1997 when the Adus won an immigration lottery (that had nothing to do with his soccer talents). An elementary school friend brought him to a tryout for the Potomac Soccer Association, and the buzz has been off the hook ever since. After dominating a prestigious under-14 tournament in Italy (at age 10), Freddy was offered a six-figure package by Inter Milan to oversee his development. His mother, Emelia, said no, but she did say yes when the U.S. Soccer Federation invited Freddy to the U-17 residency camp in January 2001.

How good is Freddy? I'm trained to be skeptical in these matters, but the fact is Freddy was the most entertaining player on the field during the two games I saw him play with the U-17s in December. He has extraordinary speed, vision and skill, which can be seen in his ability to elude onrushing defenders in tight space and make passes that most folks wouldn't imagine possible. (And yes, he can score too.) Does he have room for a lot of improvement? Of course. That's why it'll be fun to watch his progress.

All that said, I don't normally do stories on youth players (especially 13-year-olds), so I spoke to several soccer people who evaluate players for a living. Everyone said Freddy is remarkably talented for his age, but they all displayed varying degrees of caution. A couple mentioned the sad tale of Nii Lamptey, the Ghanaian phenom who won the MVP award at the 1991 under-17 World Cup but never made an impact in Europe.

For an example of the excitement-tempered-by-caution perspective, just listen to U.S. national coach Bruce Arena. In one conversation, Arena told me: "This may be our first superstar. Maybe this is the guy." Then in a later discussion: "We think he's going to be a good player, but we realize there's a lot ahead of him. Too often, promising youth players are placed on a pedestal, and that's a mistake."

I spent a lot of time with U.S. under-17 coach John Ellinger in Florida, and while he knows Freddy has a long way to go, he isn't afraid to gush: "One night I got an Instant Message, and an officer in the Federation asked me, 'Could Freddy play on the under-20 team?' Yes. 'Could he start for the under-20s?' Yes. 'Could Freddy play in MLS?' Yes. 'Could he start?' Probably not, but he could make a roster.

"I can see why people are excited. I'm excited," Ellinger continues. "Look at his awareness on the field of what's going on away from the ball when he's got the ball. You call it vision, perception, whatever. It's not just one time. I've seen him do technical things from both sides of the field that I've never seen done by a player that age or a couple years older.

"The ball will be coming from the left back, and Freddy's making a run into the left attacking space. The ball's played in with pace, and here comes the defender. Freddy looks and sees him, and now he brings the outside of his left foot and pops it over the defender's head. Then he runs around and gets it. In another game, he did it on the other side with his right foot. At full speed he's making these kinds of technical decisions, and he's successful with them."

Is Freddy the "LeBron James of soccer"? Nope. Not even close. LeBron was 17 and unquestionably NBA-ready when my SI cover story on him appeared 12 months ago. Freddy is 13. There's a big, big difference there. How Freddy grows, physically and mentally, over the next two years will determine if he should be compared to LeBron. One very good sign is that Freddy's family, unlike LeBron's, has been willing to say "no" from the start, whether it's to Inter Milan or agents or members of the news media. (Look for the USSF to start limiting media access to Freddy more and more.)

It also helps that we're talking about soccer here, not hoops. In a country that cares little about the sport, there's no way coverage of Freddy will ever match the circus surrounding LeBron.

What kind of a kid is Freddy? Smart, warm, engaging, respectful: It's all there. Already Freddy is a better interview than 90 percent of the people I talk to in my job. From what I could tell, he gets along well with his teammates. (In fact, it seems like Freddy always has his arm draped around a teammate's shoulder.) Do you know how a lot of accelerated kids are totally lacking in social skills? Freddy ain't one of them.

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.

Station break: Eight random things

• Just learned in the latest SI swimsuit issue that Argentine model Yamila Diaz-Rahi is a Boca Juniors fan. True story: The day before Yamila arrived at our resort in Grenada for her shoot last fall, I was wearing a Boca jersey on the beach there while "researching" my story for the issue. Never did meet her, since I had to return to the States for the college hoops preview, but I'm trying to guess: Had we met, would she have thought I was 1) a stalker, or 2) extremely cool because of the Boca jersey?

• Speaking of Swimsuit 2K3, nice pix of Brian McBride and Cobi Jones along with their better halves. Any nominations of soccer couples for next year? Send 'em HERE .

• I'm still fascinated by the following stat: Of the 144 eligible players who competed in the 1999 under-17 World Cup, only three (Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Brazil's Kaká) graduated to their nations' World Cup 2002 rosters. Given that two of those three players are Americans, is there any chance that the American developmental system might actually be more effective than believed? Or might Donovan and Beasley have been remarkable aberrations?

• Get ready to be very tired, very quickly, of headlines like MUCH ADU ABOUT FREDDY. (One saving grace: At least it'll teach folks how to pronounce Freddy's surname correctly.)

• Things you learn when dealing with documents: Freddy Adu's full name is Fredua Koranteng Adu. His younger brother (who is part of the U.S. under-14 team pool) is named Fredua Akoto Adu. Yep, they're both named Fredua. According to both Freddy and his mother, Fredua Akoto also hopes to play for the U.S. (as opposed to Ghana) someday.

• Don't be deceived into thinking the U.S. under-17s will have an unimpeded route through next week's regional qualifying tournament. For starters, their group includes the host country, Guatemala. Also, keep in mind that even the 1999 U.S. team (with Beasley, Donovan and Bobby Convey) that finished fourth in the world had to go to a playoff just to reach the finals after finishing second in their qualifying group.

• Don't worry: This column won't turn into the "All Freddy, All The Time" channel. (I'm cleaning out the notebook here.) Freddy is most definitely a story, but I do hope people will let him be a kid and grow. There's a nasty trend in sports fandom, to say nothing of the media, to have absolutely no patience with coaches and players, a tendency I sincerely hope Freddy avoids.

• Got this note from SI.com's London-based Gabriele Marcotti (by no means a U.S. soccer booster) a couple days ago: "Brad Friedel had a monster of a game against Chelsea last weekend. Seriously, it was the best goalkeeping performance I've seen in the Premiership this season."

Freddy B-sides

O.K., enough of my yapping. If you're still reading, you're a soccer nut who would appreciate some of the B-sides from my reporting that didn't make it into this week's SI story:

Bruce Arena on the possibility of Adu playing for the U.S. in the 2006 World Cup: "There is a hypothetical role. We had two 20-year-olds play in the last World Cup. This kid will be 17 and in a much more accelerated environment than Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley were."

USSF executive vice-president Sunil Gulati on how much caution we should have in covering a 13-year-old: "The reservations are valid. The discussion has to be, 'Is this too young?' Not for a gymnast, clearly, or for some tennis players who come out of Bradenton. But keep in mind, nobody knows where Steve Snow is these days." (Snow, you may recall, was a U.S. phenom from the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

Chicago Fire coach Dave Sarachan: "When I was [an assistant coach] at D.C. United in 1999, we took a youth team to France for the [under-12] Danone Cup. So we assembled a group of local youth players for a tryout. Freddy was 10 at the time and playing for a Potomac traveling team, so we brought him to the D.C. United practice field for the tryout. We had 30 kids there, and he split through them like a knife through butter for an hour and a half. I'm going, 'Holy sh--, who is this kid?' His coach had told me Freddy was going to come to the tryout, but that he might have another opportunity [at a U-14 tournament in Italy].

"After the second day of the tryout, Freddy pulled me aside and said, 'Coach, I hope you understand, but I don't think I'm going to go to France.' And I said, 'Freddy, I don't like saying this ahead of time, but you're going to be picked [for the D.C. United team]. But if you have the chance to go with the under-14 team, you're probably right.' And the kid was 10 years old! Amazing."

D.C. United coach Ray Hudson on Adu's week-long training stint with his team last spring: "He was never out of place or overwhelmed. He never complicated things or tried to overreach or overimpress. He went about things in a very mature way, and only over the last couple of days did he start to plume his feathers trying backheels and overhead kicks and one-two's. I've come across a lot of talented young players who aren't able to withstand that spotlight. He seems to be waiting for it. And the kid himself is an angel. He started taking the Mickey out of me, making fun of my Newcastle accent."

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?"

Freddy Adu Q&A

Just to give you an idea of Freddy's poise with the media, here are some selected exchanges that you won't see in the SI story:

SI: What do you remember about the day you learned you were moving to the United States?

Adu: We were eating dinner, and my mom said, 'We're moving to the United States.' Back then when you were moving to the United States it was so big-time. Everyone wanted to come to America. I just jumped up: 'We're going to the USA!' I was in shock. All my cousins were here, and they were telling us how great this place was. It was so sweet. She told us we were coming here for school. The soccer part just happened to work out really great. Sometimes I just wonder, 'Where would I be right now if hadn't come to the USA? Where would I be living? What would I be doing?'

SI: Why have you decided to play for the U.S. instead of Ghana internationally?

Adu: When I was first asked to come here [to Bradenton], I had to think about it. But the thing I made the final decision on was management and where they can use your talent in the best way. U.S. Soccer has money to take care of their teams. You have a better opportunity to do things here than in Ghana, where they've never qualified for a World Cup. Players just disappear there. They would be so good and win all these youth tournaments, and then just disappear.

SI: What do you remember about your first under-14 tournament in Italy?

Adu: I was 10, and somehow I made the team. We went to Italy, and you know, Americans are underdogs. We played the most amazing club teams in Italy, Lazio and all of them. We have our first game, and I'm nervous as anything, scared because these guys are huge. Huge. They're all 14. And I was real small, like 5'3". We start playing, and the first 15 minutes I don't touch the ball because I'm so scared. And the coach, Tim O'Sullivan, screams out, 'Freddy, find the ball!' And I'm like, 'Forget it, I can play with these guys.' I surprised myself with how well I played. I scored two goals in that game, and the next few games I felt like I was unstoppable. Every time I touched the ball the crowd would scream 'Heyyyyy!' Right after that trip was when my mom got the first call from Inter Milan.

SI: How did you feel when she turned down Inter Milan?

Adu: I was happy, because I didn't want to leave home anyway. She told me not to worry about it, just keep doing what you're doing, and more of those will come.

SI: What are you thinking about when you're on the field?

Adu: I just let the moment and the mood come to me. It's weird. I think, but I don't really think. You're doing stuff you don't even think you can do. There's one or two things that I would do in a game where I'm like, 'What the heck? What did I just do?'

SI: Where does that come from?

Adu: I've been watching soccer for so long. Everything I know is just self-taught. I wish school was like that. You'd see it and just paste it into your brain.

SI: Have you talked much with Bruce Arena?

Adu: The first time I spoke to him was when Nationals were held in Maryland. He had seen me play before, and he said it looked like I had grown. I've gained 15 pounds since I came down here. We ended up talking about Ronaldo and Ronaldinho and how they're built. He was like, 'Even if you don't grow [upward] anymore, the only thing you can ask for is to get bigger.'

SI: In what ways have you improved since you came to Bradenton?

Adu: Movement off the ball. At first I would just stand there, and if I didn't get the ball I would just say, 'Pass the ball.' Then I figured it out: The better the competition, the more you have to move to get the ball. My game has changed a lot because of that. I've also learned how to take a defender with me and open up space for someone else.

My shot has gotten so much better too. I used to rush them and they'd go over the goal. Now I'm just driving the ball, and it feels good when the shot comes off your foot. My free kicks have gotten better. Sometimes you're not having a real good game, and the only way you can help your team is on set pieces. You have a free kick and boom, you score a goal. You've got to have different weapons, different ways of scoring.

SI: What are your ultimate goals?

Adu: My goal is to try and be the youngest player ever to start for the U.S. national team in like a World Cup or something. If I can somehow miraculously get on that [2006] team, I would work so hard just to earn one start. The ultimate goal is to win a World Cup. But for 2006, if I could just get out there....

SI: Do you want to play in MLS?

Adu: It's certainly an option. Maybe if I get out of here a little quickly I could play in MLS until I'm about 18 and then just go overseas. There are talks going on about trying to get me to play in MLS for three years from 15 to 18. It would be nice to make it in a way I can just play with D.C. United [Adu's local team] because of my age.

So there you have it. I'll be on March Madness duty for the next month, but we'll go back to twice-monthly soccer columns here starting in April.

See you then.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl keeps you up to date with the world of U.S. soccer at SI.com. To send Wahl a comment, question or story idea, click here.

 

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