The news-cycle narrative of Freddy Adu is true to form for the false hero of United States soccer: absent, disappointing and unfulfilled.
Adu-mania shaped his career on the path to much Adu about nothing.
“A blind man on a galloping horse can see [Adu’s] talent,” then DC United manager Ray Hudson said, per The Washington Times. “He’s a little faberge egg, and everyone’s trying to protect him.”
Blind man on a galloping horse: Piero Ausilio, Inter Milan’s sporting director.
“Freddy is the first American that we have ever seen with potential as a pro [in Serie A],” Ausilio said, per The Washington Post (h/t BBC Sport). “We have never done this before.”
What hadn’t Ausilio done before?
Offer six figures to the mother of a pre-teen, who arrived in the United States from Ghana, thanks to the green-card lottery.
Protecting Adu like a “little faberge egg,” his mother, Emelia, rebuffed Inter Milan’s overture.
“I get calls from people in England and Italy, and people back in my home country [Ghana] who said they would take care of Freddy,” Emelia said, per Amy Rosewater at USA Today. “He is just too young … I want him to get an education.”
Emelia refused to compromise her values for money, despite Adu’s father abandoning the family.
“No, I don’t see [dad]. He’s completely out of the picture,” Adu said, per Lesley Stahl at 60 minutes. “[Mum] would wake up at five in the morning, leave at six, go to work. She gets off work at six in the evening, to go to an overnight job.”
This is the smoking gun which contradicts the unsubstantiated claims of Adu being an alleged age-fraud, a convenient way of explaining his drastic regression.
If Adu’s mother allegedly doctored his age to give him a psychological and physical advantage over his competition, which would make him more receptive to scouts, thus increase the chance of financial gain, then she would have accepted Inter Milan’s offer.
Grant Wahl at Sports Illustrated refuted the theory of Adu’s mother allegedly under-declaring his age:
The family says bring it on, pointing out that nobody has found any evidence that the date on Freddy’s certified birth registration (June 2, 1989) is incorrect.
Nor did [Sports Illustrated], in an effort to independently confirm Freddy’s age through sources in Ghana, find any evidence that he’s older than he says he is.
A year-and-a-half before Wahl filed his Adu article, Ian Thomsen, Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura at Sports Illustrated broke the news that Danny Almonte, the Little League World Series pitching phenom, was an age-cheat.
Sports Illustrated had uncovered Almonte’s deception and would have done the same to Adu.
Except there was nothing to expose when it came to Adu’s age.
At 14 years of age, Adu’s net worth reached seven figures when his agent Richard Motzkin negotiated a $1 million sponsorship deal with Nike.
“[Adu is] going to be wearing Nike boots on the field all the time,” Motzkin said, per Darren Rovell at ESPN. “Off the field he’ll be hanging out in Nike shoes and apparel.”
A $500,000 per year contract with Major League Soccer bolstered Adu’s bank balance during an era when budget constraints kept “the salaries of most MLS players under $30,000 a year,” per Jack Bell at The New York Times.
Initially Adu used his Nike money “to have a certain level of financial security” for his family, but later on, he may have been seduced by the Benjamins with sponsorship deals ranging from:
These were supplementary duties as Adu was beholden to DC United, which generated buzz in the MLS, per Jamie Trecker at the Sports Business Journal.
The MLS worked Adu into the ground in order to continue the high interest in soccer, a minority sport in the United States.
The end result was Adu transitioning into soccer’s version of Anna Kournikova—celebrity first, athlete second, per Steven Goff at The Washington Post:
Adu had done hundreds of interviews, chatted up Shaquille O’Neal, dined with Daniel Snyder, taken a cell phone call from Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, greeted John Ashcroft, mingled with Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall, charmed David Letterman, flirted with Fox starlet Mischa Barton and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, and rocked with David Bowie.
Overindulging in fame clouted Adu’s professionalism toward soccer which was evident during the lead-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, as revealed by former United States international Jimmy Conrad.
“[Adu] was a guy who thought he was a shoo-in but didn’t put the work in,” Conrad said, per Noah Davis at Grantland. “Thankfully, he got left off because that would have been disrespectful to guys who were working hard.”
Returning to the MLS for the third time could be complicated for Adu, according to former MLS veteran Alejandro Moreno, per ESPN FC TV:
[Adu is] perhaps not the most solid citizen in the locker room. Perhaps not the most committed guy on the field.
Also, he is a guy that may not be willing to take a pay-cut to come and play in the MLS. He wants first-class money and he is not a first-class player.
Too much too soon for Freddy Adu when he came into Major League Soccer.
I think he has burnt one too many bridges.
Adu disregarded a legend’s sage advice, per Tim Nudd at Adweek: “[Pele] told me, ‘God gave you this talent. Make the most of it.'”
Pele has 15 centuries of fame, according to the late Andy Warhol, whereas Adu’s fame only lasted 15 minutes.
But fame hindered his development and much Adu about nothing is the proverbial expression to sum up his faltering career.
Do you know much Adu about nothing was originally used for Adu’s brother, Fro, in a profile by ESPN columnist Jemele Hill?
There is one silver lining.
Travelling from Bahia, Brazil, to Jagodina, Serbia—via pit stops at Blackpool, England; Stabaek, Norway; and AZ, Holland—Freddy and Fro *cue The Amazing Race intro*.
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