There’s a lot of buzz in the press lately about Freddy Adu. He’s a 13 year old playing for the US U-17, which just qualified for the U-17 World Cup in Finland this August. They did that by beating Guatemala 3-0, Jamaica 3-0 and tying El Salvador 1-1. Freddy scored and had an assist in both wins, tying with two others for most goals scored in his group.
Good to hear mom’s got both feet firmly on the ground, although it’ll be interesting to see for how long. Then again, if he’s really THIS good, there’s nothing wrong with him turning (semi-)pro at 16 for a strong Eurpean side like Inter. Or perhaps a UK team, as it’ll suit him more culturally.
Exciting! And maybe one more well-needed boost for American soccer (I’d say American football, but that would get confusing really quickly ;)). I look forward to seeing this lad play in 2007, or maybe sooner.
Will they televise any of the U-17 tournament in the Netherlands? I’d love to actually see him play. What’s not drummed up to much in the story is that his younger brother is supposed to be almost as good. I’m not holding my breath but am holding out hope to see them play together at 20 and 18 in 2010.
And you’re right, from everything I’ve read his mother really has her act together. The downside for turning pro on a European side is that it’s just a long way away from everything for such a young kid. Landon Donovan, one of the current young US stars really got very little from his time in the Bundesliga. Keep in mind that most Americans are not multilingual and might have some trouble to blend in.
Thats generally why they work best over here in England, as Coldfire said, its not too much of a cultural shift.
The Netherlands is always another option - historically they’ve always done pretty well when it comes to integrating English-speaking kids into youth schemes with the minimum upheaval for the kid.
garius, isn’t there a lot of racial abuse heaped on African players in the Premiership? Or am I confusing the league with the Serie A?
The Premier League is hardly a bastion of racism - there’s plenty of black players from all nations.
Shibb, I might catch this lad on Dutch TV if the US happens to play the Dutch U-17’s. And even then, it’s highlights at best.
Holland may be another option for kids like Adu: people generally speak English quite well, and are openminded towards other cultures. John O’Brien came here when he was 15, and still plays for Ajax. Truth be told, he really made an effort to blend in: he speaks Dutch with no accent whatsoever (well, a posh Dutch accent!), something that’s really hard to accomplish. Seriously, he’s more articulate in Dutch than most of the native Ajax players. 
It’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. There has been a concerted effort to remove Racism from football, but unfortunately you will still get some idiots who are missing a link in the evolutionary chain.
As for the Serie A, well, lets just say that he’d have to be something special to win over the Lazio Hardcore.
He’s only 13! He’ll need a great deal of wise care not to be hopelessly screwed up, at least mentally, before he could make the national team.
How many young athletes do you hear about at that age, or even several years later, turn out to be anything? Either their bodies don’t mature in the way one would hope, or they’ve been in such a tight bubble that they can’t handle real-world situations, or they rebel against their parents/coaches and lose their training, or … Well, let’s hope he’s an exception.
As if the soccer/footie stuff wasn’t enough:
On acadmics:
OK, I made all that up. Good Lord, how much more perfect can a kid be? In the interests of US Soccer, I hope that he keeps his feet planted and keeps working hard.
As Twistoffate said, The Premiership has really come down hard on Racism in football - although obviously you are never going to stamp it out completely.
These days when Racial abuse comes up in the media it generally seems to rear its ugly head in European football when Brit teams are abroad.
It’s not uncommon for extremely talented football players to excell at other ball sports as well. Having said that, he scored 25 in 16 at state level? That’s AMAZING. I’m assuming that a state championship means a decent level of opposition here.
Decent, but not uniformly spectacular, so it’s difficult to judge by numbers. That being said, my friend is a coach with the Olympic Development Program and has seen Freddy Adu play. He said the kid is spectacular and has a pretty mature understanding of the game.
He’s living in my area, so I’ve read a few stories in the paper about him. I’ve been impressed with his mother. If he doesn’t live up to expectations, it won’t be because of an overbearing parent.
Hey, maybe you can catch a game or training sometime, and let us know! 
From what I can find he’s scored somewhere between 24-28 goals since he joined the US U-17 about a year ago. These were mostly exhibition games, some of them against MLS (US pro league). They beat one of the pro teams 2-1 on two goals from Freddy. The goals he scored at the “state” level would have been against other “kids” as much as 6-7 years older than him, so while that’s not like playing professional, it’s still pretty impressive. At the time he was about 5’3" (roughly 1.57 m) and only about 115 pounds (52 kilos). He’s grown taller and heavier since. One interesting note was that in 2001 he was named to Maryland’s second team all state team. So at least at that point, whoever decides those things thought that there were at least 11 players better than him.
Here’s a link I found to some tape footage. It’s a little difficult to sort through, but you go to the “4” in the bottom left Frame, then go to “Pre-Mundial 3era Fecha”. I think there may be some other stuff in there, too. The one highlight I saw his shot his the crossbar, but first he just sort of seemed to have his way going through six defenders with the ball.
Here’s another link I found at the same site, but I am getting bandwidth errors for this one.
Now that he’s big time I don’t know how often he plays in the area. I’ll ask my friend and see if he knows of any local games.
I’ll also talk to to my friend and give you some more detailed comments on the young Mr. Adu.
Maybe I can be an official SDMB scout. I’ll take the job for half of a Mod’s salary.
That’s all I found, but say no more! I’m hardly a die-hard football expert, but I think I know pure talent when I see it. This kid is awesome!
Zoff, half a mod’s salary? You’ll have an awefully messy desk.
Coldie, I found another by going to 3 on that first link. It’s his goal in the other game (vs Jamaica, I think). In it he somehow gets behind the entire defense, gets stopped by the keeper, takes the ball back several meters, then weaves through a couple of defenders who have gotten back to him by then, and beats the keeper with his second shot, a nice left foot from about 6-7 meters out. Another pretty amazing piece of work. It’s like watching a big kid play with smaller kids, but in this case he’s the younger one. Just hope that his early success doesn’t spoil him.
Even the FIFA boys are getting in on the Freddy lovefest:
Oops, left out the FIFA link to the story above.