Adu to Monaco on loan

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There's a ton of Freddy storied today the hype machine has begun.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/20/sports/20VECS.html



A Teenager Handling the Adult World With Poise

FREDDY ADU is mature far beyond his 14 years.

When he makes a spin move on the soccer field, he leaves opponents chomping on the turf, real or artificial.

Adu is also mature in the complicated world of New York news conferences. Yesterday he signed with Major League Soccer, graciously thanking his mother and everybody else who had helped him along the way.

"The 46-year-old commissioner needed notes, but the 14-year-old player did not," announced Don Garber, the commissioner of the league.

Afterward, Adu was catching a bite to eat in a private room. Sitting next to him was his mother, Emelia, who brought him over from Ghana when he was 9 for the normal survivor reasons people seek out the United States.

His mother tells him what to do. For the foreseeable future, he will live at home in suburban Maryland, on her say-so. In return, as man of the house, he protects her.

Emelia Adu does not give interviews. That was the word yesterday after she discreetly slipped out of the crowded news conference. But when I was ushered into the private room to be introduced, I tried my luck with a question about her high standards for her son. She smiled politely, sweetly, but no words came out.

Freddy Adu, all 5 feet 8 inches and 140 pounds, stood up and intervened, turning the awkward moment into a joke.

"People ask her questions and she freezes," he said, smiling at her, smiling at me, bringing us together in the glow of his presence. Every mother should have a son like this at her side, and vice versa.

Adu may indeed be one of a kind, just as the people in American soccer dare to dream for him, for them.

He has been a golden boy since he showed up for a mass practice in Washington five years ago. People gasped at his moves, which he learned playing barefoot from the age of 2 in Tema, Ghana. Growing up in a world that knows and loves soccer, he saw photos of Pelé and Diego Armando Maradona, and he wanted to be like them.

"We had a tryout for 13-year-olds to go to France," recalled Kevin Payne, a former general manager for D.C. United. One youngster impressed Payne so much that he telephoned Bruce Arena, the United coach at the time, and said, "Bruce, you have to come out here and watch this kid."

Later they found out Adu was only 9. He was just in from Ghana, where his mother had won a government lottery for the right to apply to emigrate to the United States, having nothing whatsoever to do with soccer. Suddenly, he became Ghana's great gift to the United States.

Arena is now the national team coach, who just may consider Adu for the next World Cup in 2006. New international soccer rules made it difficult for the great clubs of Europe to sign Adu and use him in senior competition, but it was a moot point. His mother wanted him to finish high school, which he will do in May, and she wanted him where she could keep an eye on him for the apparent four years of his new contract.

During the news conference yesterday, video monitors played endless loops of Freddy Adu highlight clips. In white jerseys, blue jerseys and green workout vests, he swivel-hipped his way through defenders of all nations.

"Incredible ball control," said Mark Noonan, an executive vice president for M.L.S., who played for Duke when it won the national college championship in 1986. Yesterday, Noonan quietly narrated Adu's clips, with a mix of jealousy and awe.

"Joy," Noonan said. "Vision. He's left-footed but he can shoot with his right. The Maradona factor. Knowing where his people are. Exuberance. Poise. Look at that, an uncanny cutback. He doesn't hesitate. He just slalomed through five guys! He's the youngest guy on the field. The tapes don't lie."

The tapes showed a youngster playing with the improvisational skills of world soccer, the way they play in dusty streets of Naples and Buenos Aires and Lagos, rather than the rigid textbook drills of American youth leagues. Soon Adu will be playing against hardened professionals, twice his age, but yesterday he more than handled his coming-out ceremony. He recalled playing on the "rocks and broken bottles" in Ghana, with the occasional goat wandering onto the field.

"I'd cry if my mom called for me to come in," he said.

Some reporters wring their hands at the growing trend of young players like LeBron James forsaking college to play pro basketball and Maurice Clarett's eagerness to leave college for the National Football League. Freddy Adu's poise and his video clips kept reporters from reporting the M.L.S. to the child-labor authorities.

The league holds its championship game Sunday on ABC. The next big date for the league is April 3 — Adu's first game with D.C. United, also on ABC.

Yesterday, the young man did not leave us twisted into pretzel shapes on the grass, the way he does defenders. He left us smiling in the glow of his presence. What a lovely, hopeful start.

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http://www.nynewsday.com/sports/socc...ort-navigation

A Soccer Pro at 14-MLS locks up newest sensation

By John Jeansonne
Staff Writer

November 20, 2003

For his first season as a professional soccer player, Freddy Adu guessed that "my mom will take me to practice sometimes." In some ways, there is no getting around that he's 14 years old.

He will make roughly $500,000 on the six-year contract he signed Tuesday night with Major League Soccer. He doesn't think it will take "too long" before he breaks into the starting lineup for D.C. United, which worked a deal to obtain the league's top 2004 draft choice so that Adu could be close to his Potomac, Md., home.

During Wednesday 's introductory news conference at Madison Square Garden, MLS commissioner Don Garber called Adu's signing "a monumental day in the history of U.S. soccer," and deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis proclaimed Adu to be "the best young player in the world right now."

Adu's agent, Richard Motzkin, said "all the top clubs in the world" had been in pursuit of rights to Adu, although he wouldn't have been eligible to compete for such European dynasties as Manchester United or Inter Milan until he turned 18.

Between the verbal embroidery of so many experts, and the visual evidence of Adu's speed, technical brilliance and general soccer sangfroid readily available in tapes of his performance for the Under-17 U.S. team, the "prodigy" label sticks with surprising ease.

He scored 22 goals for the U-17 side in 2002 and has 29 in 46 games this year. Perhaps he will make the 2004 U.S. Olympic team at 15; his birthday is in June and the Athens Games in August. Maybe he will ascend to the 2006 World Cup roster at 17. "Both unlikely," Gazidis said, "but I'd never say 'never'. with Freddy."

Adu hit all the right notes by thanking everyone from his mother, brother, uncle, first age-group coach, teammates and agents right up through MLS' hierarchy. "You know what? I'm just going to keep playing and have fun," he said. "I'm still a little kid."

Listed at 5-8 and 140, though he appears closer to 5-6, he displays a carefree confidence ("If you're good enough, you're old enough; if you do well, all props to you") and unusual awareness.

Just this week, he had breakfast with Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson -- both are represented by global sports agency IMG -- and already was digesting some of the advice. "A lot of people," Adu said, "don't like you for who you are, but for what you're doing [as a star athlete]. You've got to be careful, stay humble, be yourself."

He was born in relative poverty in Ghana, more politically stable than its West African neighbors but still with an annual per-capita income of only $1,900. Via an immigration lottery, the family's name literally was picked out of a hat, granted green-card status and came to the United States in 1997.

Adu's father, Maxwell, remains in the D.C. area but no longer lives with the family, which first settled in Maryland with an uncle, the brother of Adu's mother, Emelia. Both of her sons have the first name "Fredua," but "Freddy's" kid brother long since was dubbed "Fro" by the son of Potomac youth soccer coach Arnold Tarzy. "In Ghana," Tarzy said, "they had the kind of freedom that a lot of us had as kids. 'See you, mom,' and they're out the door to play. I think that's part of why Freddy is so mature. When they came here, they had to start from scratch, and their mother wasn't pleased with their neighborhood. She didn't feel it was safe to let the boys out of the house to play. And she was working two 40-hour-a-week jobs. So Freddy and Fro spent a lot of time at my house."

A classmate spotted the older Adu's soccer skill during recess and invited him onto his youth team. He played against Tarzy's team, which is a power in the region. "He must have been 9 the first time I saw him," Tarzy said. "All the other kids were 10 and we had a very good team, but we couldn't come close to stopping him. Seeing his talent just blows your mind. I made it my life's work for the next week to get him onto my team. All I knew was his first name. I found out where he went to school, found his uncle's phone number, tracked him down."

It was Tarzy, Adu said, who saved his soccer career. "In Ghana, soccer is what you play. Barefoot, in the streets. Every day, all the time," he said. "I was probably 21/2 when I started to play" and unlike most Ghanaian boys, he had a real soccer ball, sent from his uncle in America.

"My mom said that when she'd take the ball away, I'd start crying. Then when I came here, I wouldn't see anybody playing in the streets. It was cold, snow everywhere, and people told me that most American kids have other activities; that's why they don't play. So I was hooked on basketball for a little while until this man helped me find a club team."

Within four years, he was a high school all-American (and became a U.S. citizen earlier this year). Before he was 13, the U.S. soccer federation had placed him in its Bradenton, Fla., residency program, which includes an accelerated education tract tailored to the schedules of young players.

Adu will receive his high school diploma there in March, just as the MLS season commences. He will not get a car for graduation.

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http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20...2139-8085r.htm

Adu groomed as MLS' savior

Calling it one of the "most monumental days" in the history of soccer in America, Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber yesterday announced that 14-year-old Potomac resident Freddy Adu had signed a multi-year contract with the league.
MLS controls all player contracts and will assign Adu, the youngest player ever to sign with the league, to D.C. United. The local club will give "future considerations" to the Dallas Burn, who own the top pick in next year's draft.
United likely will have to send a major player to Dallas for Adu, or an allocation, which it can obtain if star midfielder Marco Etcheverry leaves the club. Adu will not count against United's salary cap because he is a Project-40 player.
The signing of Adu, who moved from Ghana with his family in 1997, has created more media attention than that of any other player in league history. In addition, MLS eventually will try to earn a big transfer fee on Adu if a major European club comes calling.
English clubs such as Manchester United and Chelsea have shown interest in Adu. However, by rule he would not be able to play professionally in Europe until he turns 18.
"I have faith in MLS," Adu said. "I know they're going to treat me right."
Notably missing from yesterday's news conference was United coach Ray Hudson, who is in discussions about his future with the club. Hudson's contract with United expires next month. The United coach was not invited to the news conference and did not listen in on the conference call.
"D.C. United has a special place in Freddy's heart," Hudson said yesterday. "He's coming to a club that he has an emotional connection to, and that's a real bonus."
Adu has trained with D.C. United and gets along well with Hudson.
"He's always joking about my accent," said the British-born coach.
A number of young players have joined United in recent years, including Ben Olsen, Chris Albright, Jason Moore, Bobby Convey, Santino Quaranta and now Adu. All were highly rated and some heralded as the future of American soccer. Convey and Quaranta both joined the club when they were 16.
While Adu was hailed as the savior of MLS, former United coach Thomas Rongen originally declined to add the striker to the U.S. under-20 national team that will compete in the FIFA Youth World Championship in the United Arab Emirates Nov. 27 to Dec. 19. Adu was added to the team yesterday when forward Arturo Alvarez withdrew because of injury.
Adu said he would join United in March after he completes his high school studies at the Edison Learning Center in Bradenton, Fla.
"We wanted to allow Freddy to pursue his dreams and develop his God-given talents," said Adu's mother, Emelia. "As he makes this next step at the age of 14, it was best for Freddy to stay in America and sign with MLS."

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/s...orts-headlines

Hudson: Go easy on Adu

There's a saying in England that goes, "If you're good enough, you're old enough."

It's a saying Ray Hudson learned first-hand when he debuted for Newcastle United at age 17.

Now 48, Hudson may get to test that maxim again as coach of D.C. United, where he could be the one who decides whether 14-year-old prodigy Freddy Adu is good enough to play in MLS in 2004.

Adu signed a four-year contract with a two-year league option with MLS on Tuesday, reportedly becoming the league's highest-paid player. The landmark day for the Ghanian-born, naturalized American also included an appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman and his addition to the United States under-20 team that will play in the FIFA Youth World Championship that begins next week in the United Arab Emirates.

Hudson, meanwhile, still isn't sure he'll be coaching D.C. next season. He's in the option year of a three-year contract and expects management to resolve his status after Thanksgiving. For now, however, Hudson is Adu's coach and the prospect of mentoring the gifted forward is something he welcomes, though he's wary of expecting too much too soon.

"It'll certainly be an enjoyment and a great challenge to move the boy along," Hudson said. "But let's face it, he's been playing go-cart soccer and he'll be in with Formula One boys now. People have really got to wake up to the fact that he'll be amongst men for the first time.

"We've had glimpses of his ability and he seems to be able to fit right in. If he's good enough I wouldn't hesitate in putting him in regardless of his age. But that's not the intention here. The intention is to polish the diamond and maybe cut it into an even better piece than it is right now."

After the U-20 tournament, Adu will train with the U.S. under-17s in Bradenton until he graduates high school in the spring. He'll have turned 15 when he joins D.C. United and is placed in a media fishbowl that no American soccer player has ever experienced. That fishbowl will include his coach and teammates.

Hudson said D.C. United "cannot put a halo around" Adu and shield him from the attention and the combative nature of the pro game. He added, however, that the best way to see if the teenager is ready is to let him play.

"When I took the field [for Newcastle] at St. James against Stoke City, it was dreamland stuff. My game naturally came out," Hudson said. "There's got to be a time where we have to take the training wheels off the bike and let the kid go. He may be wobbly at first, but when he gets the hang of it he'll be turning wheelies."

Hudson is cautious not to let all the hype get the better of Adu and D.C. United. Still, he said Adu proved at recent training sessions that he has the talent and the temperament to play in MLS.

"He demonstrated plenty of verve, poise and real good decision-making in an uncomplicated manner," Hudson said. "He never showboated until right up to the last day when he started to have a little fun and started to take our breath away. That's how smart the kid was. He wasn't going to come in and stand on the rooftops and proclaim himself.

"Up to now the story has been a fairytale and it's been achieved by his own tremendous talent. The next chapter begins on the practice fields at D.C. United. Then things become extremely interesting."

The question for Hudson is whether he'll be part of that next chapter.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...fp/fbl_usa_adu

Football phenom Adu officially introduced by MLS

NEW YORK (AFP) - Freddy Adu, the 14-year old football phenomenon, was formally introduced as Major League Soccer's newest signee.

Excluding individual sports, Adu will become the youngest professional American athlete in more than 100 years when he takes the field next April.

"This is one of the most monumental days in the history of soccer in the USA," MLS commissioner Don Garber said at a news conference in New York. "With enormous pride and excitement, we announce that we have reached a long-term deal with young Mr. Freddy Adu, one of the most accomplished young soccer players in the world."

Adu will be assigned to D.C. United, which completed a trade with the Dallas Burn to gain the first pick in the SuperDraft.

Terms of Adu's contract were not disclosed.

Adu reportedly becomes the highest-paid player in the league, with a yearly salary of approximately 250,000 dollars. All players are signed to the league, not individual teams, as MLS is organized as a single-entity operation.

"Freddy is a very special player," MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidas said. "He is the best young player in the world - not just in the USA, but in the world. The sky is the limit for this young man.

"A big part of this has been D.C. United. They have taken other young men in, developing them as people and players, people we would be proud to call our sons, and that was a significant factor in the Adu family's comfort level."

For MLS, the signing is a coup.

Adu, a naturalized American born in Ghana, has demonstrated a magnetic appeal that crosses the boundary between soccer buffs - a minority in the States - and average sports fans. He has been compared to Pele and Diego Maradona and is arguably the only player that might attract hard-core sports fans to an MLS match. Earlier this year, Nike signed Adu to a 1 million-dollar endorsement deal.

MLS, which had a 6 percent drop in attendance this year after three years of growth, needed a boost. Despite a year that included new investments, stadiums and the certainty of expansion, MLS still struggled to break the perception that it is anything more than a second-tier sport.

Few thought Adu would stay this close to home. Earlier this year during the Under-17 Championship qualifying in Guatemala, Adu said he wanted to go to Europe.

But given Adu's age, his family and its advisers wanted him to stay close to home. The family resides in Potomac, Maryland - a short drive from Washington D.C.

"Money was never a central issue," Gazidas said. "What has been most important has been Freddy's personal happiness and development as a young man."

"(Staying close to home) had something to do with it, but not everything to do with it," Adu said. "I have faith in MLS. They will treat me right. I felt that this was the best place for me to be right now. I never second-guess myself."

Adu was locked out of signing anywhere else. Due to FIFA regulations, players under 18 are prohibited from signing a binding contract with a foreign side.

Inter Milan, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and others were all willing to take the risk - and offered more money than MLS - that Adu would re-sign with them in four years if he was brought into their youth program.

Late Wednesday, Adu was added to the roster of the U.S. Under-20 team that will compete later this month at the FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates.

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...ts/7303716.htm

Adu a prodigy from any angle

Fourteen and a multimillionaire.

Fourteen and expected to do for soccer what Tiger Woods has done, is doing, for golf.

Fourteen and with a name, and a game, that causes aficionados to invoke - hush now - the holy of soccer holies, Pele.

Fourteen and paid a million dollars by a certain swoosh logo to shod his dancing feet in their slippers.

Fourteen and due to finish school, high school, in March. With a degree in May.

Fourteen and for his news conference debut, he plays the Garden, Madison Square Garden, which modestly bills itself as the world's most famous sporting arena.

Fourteen. Freddy Adu is 14 and considered world class, and that adds up to "prodigy from any angle. Freddy Adu. Last name pronounced like the French word for good-bye. It's what he says to the defenders he leaves behind, in flopping frustration, as he dances down the pitch.

Fourteen ...

So the NBA has now been surpassed as the day-care center for professional athletes.

Freddy Adu makes LeBron James eligible for AARP membership and the early-bird specials.

In a blatant play for the media attention it has craved, Major League Soccer on Wednesday introduced Freddy Adu to the strobe lights and the camera's unblinking red eye, introduced him as the newest member of D.C. United and as the youngest capitalist in captivity, and something of a patriot, too, seeing as how he spurned more lucrative offers from overseas to remain in the States. For now, at least.

The kid was brilliant. Spoke without notes. Spoke with a maturity and clarity and an ease and confidence that made you blink. Fourteen and sounded 44.

Asked what he thought of all the commotion he is causing, he replied: "I don't think of myself as being different from anyone else. I play video games with my friends ... "

That's either charming naivete or a shrewdly calculated effort at ingenuousness.

"We still want him to be a 14-year-old kid," insisted Ivan Gazidis, the deputy commissioner of MLS.

Right. Lots of luck with that one.

Everyone related to him or financially tethered to him talked a good game, mentioning again and again family and the importance of being able to play for a team so close to his home (Potomac, Md.) and the unimportance of money, which is terrific, if true.

And, in fact, by every account and indication, his mother, Emilia, has done a smashing job raising a genius while keeping him grounded and protected and armed with a proper perspective.

They came to America in 1997 after winning an emigration lottery in their native Ghana. That's a long, long trip, on several different levels, to the stage in Madison Square Garden. Bully for them.

You find yourself rooting for the kid. The league is using him, of course. His coming out was timed to be a hype for the league's version of the Super Bowl, to be played Sunday in California.

But then, exploitation works both ways, doesn't it? Freddy Adu is making a handsome buck, and even more handsome bucks are to come, for if he turns out to be the performer everyone expects. Then eventually, he will end up in the lucrative employ of one of those storied overseas franchises. (Hello, Manchester United?) So it's rather difficult to summon up an argument based on violation of the child-labor laws.

For all the ruckus he has raised, Freddy Adu is only 5-feet-8, 140 pounds. Ah, but dribbling a soccer ball, weaving here, slithering there, turning defenders tangle-footed, he plays big. Very, very big.

Of course, that's against players his own age. Now, he will have to compete with grown men, which gets to the core of it all. Is this fair? And why the rush?

Freddy Adu is the latest, and the youngest, in a definite trend in our play-for-pay sports. Younger and younger and younger.

The tennis pubescents have been with us for some time, precocious and tending to the bratty and frequently burned out by 16. Hockey drafts adolescents, some barely having time to grow in their adult teeth before someone knocks them out. The NBA began harvesting high school seniors. There is no age limit in golf, and so we have the wondrously talented Michelle Wie, barely in her teens, driving the ball over the horizon.

The debate is a familiar one. Is this bad or benign? Have we lost all perspective? Do we hurry our children and, in so doing, rob them of their childhood? Or do we provide them with every opportunity to take advantage of an extraordinary aptitude?

I only wish I were smart enough to know.

Generalization is always dangerous. It seems to me this is best approached on a case-by-case basis, for circumstances and family history and background vary wildly.

In the case of Freddy Adu, an emigrant prodigy nurtured by a resolute mother, he is being given both sizable wealth and opportunity, and with that a responsibility of crushing weight. The rest of us may sit in judgment, but it is their choice.

And the consequences, in whatever form, are theirs as well.

Fourteen ...

What were you doing at 14?

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...ts/7303972.htm

Adu, 14, could become America's first real soccer star

The commissioner of Major League Soccer called it a landmark event, "one of the most monumental days in the history of soccer in this country."

Speaking on Wednesday in New York, Don Garber, the MLS commissioner, said to the league's newest player, "Thanks for your faith in MLS."

The words were spoken to a 14-year-old.

On Wednesday, soccer phenom Freddy Adu signed a six-year deal with the league - the terms of the deal were not disclosed, although it is believed he will receive several hundred thousand dollars per season - so he could live at home with his mother outside Washington and play for his hometown team, D.C. United.

He will make his debut next year, before he turns 15 in June.

Despite Wednesday's hoopla, Adu said he does not allow off-the-field excitement to affect his play.

"When I'm out there on the field, I'm not thinking about this stuff people are saying about me," Adu said.

His mother, Emelia Adu, said she fully supported her son's decision.

"We wanted to allow Freddy to pursue his dreams and develop his God-given talents," she said. "As he makes this next step at the age of 14, it was best for Freddy to stay in America and sign with MLS."

Wednesday's developments were nothing new for Adu. Before his last birthday, he had signed a $1 million deal with Nike. He turned down a six-figure offer to play for a top Italian club when he was 11 years old.

According to Elias Sports Bureau records, baseball is the only big-league sport to have a younger player. Fred Chapman made his debut for the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association in 1887, four months before he turned 15. Chapman played in only one game.

Some of the most successful European clubs, such as Manchester United, had shown great interest in the 5-foot-8, 140-pound Adu. But recently implemented international soccer rules presented some obstacles for Adu getting on the field right away in Europe, and he may have needed some youth-team seasoning, which made MLS especially attractive.

Adu, who was to appear on "Late Night with David Letterman'' on Wednesday night, will try to become what this country has never had - a real American soccer star. If he succeeds, he'll probably end up in Europe soon enough, in one of the big leagues of the sport. Until then, it will be interesting to see his impact domestically, since right now, MLS pays for its television time, gets negligible ratings, and doesn't have much of a place in the mainstream national sports discussion.

Adu's agent, Richard Motzkin, called the negotiations with MLS "a long and deliberate process."

In the soccer world, signing a very young player is not unique. Bobby Convey of Northeast Philadelphia signed with D.C. United when he was 16.

"I just hope they don't put too many expectations on him," Convey, now 20 and a regular national-team player, told the Washington Post. "I hope they let him come in and fill his role on the team and let him grow up as a player. If he comes in and trains well, he deserves to play. It all depends on where he is. I hope he does well."

Known as a high-energy magician with the ball - picture Allen Iverson busting around a basketball court - Adu came to the United States from Ghana in 1997 and this year became a naturalized American citizen. He went into full-time residency with the U.S. under-17 national team, and in August had scouts from all over the world flying to the FIFA Under-17 World Championships in Finland to watch him.

Adu didn't disappoint, scoring a hat trick in one game and the game-winner in another.

"He's the best young player in the world," said MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis. "Not in the United States - in the world."

MLS did what it took to get Adu signed, which meant the Dallas Burn, holders of the top pick in the next MLS Super Draft, found themselves trading it to D.C. United so Adu, who lives in Potomac, Md., could stay at home. All player contracts are negotiated with the league, which has a single-entity ownership structure.

Adu, who said he is on track to graduate from high school next year after taking accelerated classes, could end up on next summer's U.S. Olympic team. The next big step would be to make the U.S. national team for the 2006 World Cup.

"Hopefully, I do some things on the field that make him think about bringing me in," Adu said of U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena, who first saw Adu work out when he was 9 years old.

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Freddy will be on ESPN 2's Cold Pizza om Friday, 7-9 am re-aired from 9 to 11 am.

He will also be on the best damn sports show on Fox Sports Network, also on Friday.

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http://www.nypost.com/sports/42897.htm

MLS MAKES MUCH ADU ABOUT FREDDY


November 20, 2003 -- Freddy Adu has been called the next Pele, anointed the future of American soccer. But strip away all the wild exaggerations and breathless hyperbole, the facts of what Adu is, and what he can become, are far more important.
Arguably the finest young soccer player on the planet, Adu is the youngest professional in the modern history of team sports; and, at 14 years old, the most meaningful signing in the eight-year history of MLS.

The league unveiled Adu yesterday at a packed Garden press conference. And the Ghanaian-born, Maryland-bred prodigy, with his megawatt smile and prodigious left foot, showed why MLS gave him a six-year deal and reportedly made him its highest-paid player, at least $600,000 per year.

"If you feel like you're good enough, you're old enough. If you feel you're ready, give it a shot," said Adu, who'll be picked by hometown team D.C. United, who traded with Dallas for the top pick in the draft. "I have faith in MLS. I know they're going to treat me right."

Adu came to the U.S. in 1997 via an immigration lottery, but in a way, it was American soccer that hit the jackpot. He chose MLS over several European powers, including Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven. Red tape may have contributed to that.

Rules prohibit non-European youngsters from playing for foreign clubs without a European passport until they're 18, so clubs keep low-priced prospects in youth systems. But some teams didn't want to pay Adu big money to sit until 2007.

"Freddy is a very special player. He's the best young player in the world ... not just in the USA, but the world," said MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidas. "The sky is the limit for this young man."

Like next summer's Olympics, or the 2006 World Cup, or a 2007 move to Europe, considering his contract is reportedly a four-year deal with a two-year option. But for the moment, he's concentrating just on getting better at the sport he loves.

"When you're born and raised in Ghana, that's the sport you play. We live, breathe and eat soccer," Adu said. "I used to play in the street. There were patches of dirt, but I'd be out there playing barefoot. There would be goats running by. But I just love the sport. I can't explain the love I have for it."

Adu is the youngest pro since 14-year-old Fred Chapman appeared in a baseball game in 1872.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-122904c.html

Much Adu about soccer superkid

Freddy Adu is like just about any other 14-year-old boy whose mother drives him to soccer practice. He likes to play video games and trash-talk with his friends.
Starting in March, however, Emelia Adu will have to drive her precocious son not to youth soccer practice but to training sessions for a pro team: D.C. United.

Freddy might not have a driver's license but he has a license to score goals against players more than twice his age after announcing yesterday that he'd signed a six-year deal with Major League Soccer. It could be worth as much as $500,000 a year in a league in which many rookies get the $24,000 minimum.

Adu will become the youngest member of a major-league team since 14-year-old Fred Chapman played baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1887.

Soccer officials hope Adu will spark soccer in mainstream America. MLS commissioner Don Garber called yesterday "the most momentous day" in U.S. soccer history.

"He is a very, very special player," said assistant commissioner Ivan Gazidis. "He is the best young player in the world. The sky is the limit."

Several big-time European clubs were interested in the Potomac, Md., resident, including Manchester United. But Adu wanted to stay home.

When he was introduced at the Garden, Adu immediately thanked his mom, who worked two jobs so he and his brother would have a decent life after emigrating from Ghana in 1997. He gave his mom the silver pen he used to sign the contract before heading off for a taping of "The Late Show with David Letterman."

"She's done what she's done to raise me right as a kid," Adu said. "We've been through some tough times."

Superlatives apparently have not gone to his head. "When I'm out there on the field, I'm not thinking about this stuff people are saying about me," he said.

Adu has been compared with Pele, one of his heroes growing up in Tema, Ghana. "People say I look like him," Adu said. "I don't think so