Freddy Has Found His Footing

BRADENTON - In hindsight, it was a bit ridiculous to expect a 14-year-old kid to enter a first-division soccer league, dominate play and score lots of goals. But that's precisely the situation Freddy Adu found himself in four years ago.

Everywhere Adu went, there was Freddy Mania. Fans wanted to see him live up to the hype as a prodigy, a phenom and, as some described him, "the next Pele." There were television appearances, sold-out stadiums and, of course, a contract with Nike. He was the No. 1 selection in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft and, just three months later, filmed a television commercial with Brazilian soccer legend Pele at Raymond James Stadium.

One month later, Adu took the field for D.C. United's season opener in a nationally televised, sold-out match against the San Jose Earthquakes. His life as a pro athlete - the youngest in more than a century of American team sports - had begun. And, 14 or not, there was no turning back from that type of pressure.

"Let's be real honest. You walk into a locker room with all those older pros and you're probably the guy earning the most money without kicking the ball, it becomes a very tough environment to succeed, both on and off the field," said former Tampa Bay Mutiny coach Thomas Rongen, who coached Adu at last summer's Under-20 World Cup. "I think all parties involved tried to make the best out of a pretty tough situation but ultimately, I think Freddy suffered for it in terms of his development as a player."

As Adu takes a break from his European club, Portuguese giant Benfica, and prepares to lead the U.S. Under-23 team into this week's Olympic qualifying tournament at Raymond James Stadium, he looks back at those days and wonders how he kept himself from being swallowed whole by the hyperbole that surrounded him.

At times, he says, it nearly did.

"I started buying into it a little bit, meaning I started believing, 'You know what, what people are saying about you is true, that you're going to be the next this and that.' But it just doesn't work like that, you know? You just have to work for everything you get," he said.

Adu was a substitute most of his first two seasons and was even suspended one match by former D.C. United coach Peter Nowak during the 2005 playoffs, reportedly for complaining about a lack of playing time and suggesting he might be better off playing elsewhere.

In his third MLS season, Adu became a regular starter. But he continued to play on the wing when he preferred to play in a more central role. He also said he felt he faced "so many restrictions on what I could or couldn't do" at D.C. United and that he "didn't have the freedom to be myself." Despite flashes of brilliance during his time at D.C. and two appearances on the MLS All-Star roster, Adu was traded to Real Salt Lake before the 2007 season began.

But by then, Adu says, he had lost much of his confidence and was in need of a drastic change.

"I'm the type of player that needs to express himself," Adu says. "And somewhere along the way, I lost that."

Adu says his saving grace was last summer's U-20 World Cup in Canada. There, he captained the American squad to the quarterfinals. Before the team exited with a 2-1 loss to Austria in the quarterfinals, Adu had registered a hat trick against Poland and assisted on the two goals by Jozy Altidore that led to a 2-1 upset of Brazil.

"Since I wasn't scoring a lot of goals in MLS, I think a lot of people wrote me off and were saying I was going to be a bust and what-not," Adu said. "I wanted to prove to everybody I was still myself ... my back was against the wall and I had to come out and show everybody, it was either you just crumble or you come out and prove you can play."

Adu proved it - so much so he was offered a contract with Benfica after the U-20 World Cup. Even though he's primarily a substitute there, Adu has already appeared in the Champion's League, has started a league cup game and, coming on in the 81st minute of a league match, scored a game-winning goal six minutes later.

Reunited with Nowak on the American U-23 team, Adu says he now appreciates the disciplined training atmosphere his former coach stressed at D.C. United. And he knows now there might have been something beneficial to Freddy Mania.

"It wasn't the best of situations, coming up, pretty much with your life in the public eye all the time," Adu said. "But I don't regret anything I went through. There's a lot of kids that would love to be in my situation so I don't regret what I went through or how it happened. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity that I have and I just want to take advantage of it."