Forget Lamine Yamal, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Lionel Messi, no footballer aged 13 has ever created as much global hype as Freddy Adu. Football fans of a certain age will be familiar with the name - particularly if you played Football Manager in the early 2000s - but if you’ve never heard of him, allow us to explain.
Adu, who was born in Ghana but moved to the United States when he was eight, was labelled “the next Pele” after becoming the youngest American ever to sign a major league professional contract in any team sport when he was selected by DC United in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. One year earlier, aged just 13, the gifted starlet signed a $1 million endorsement contract with sportswear giants Nike.
Adu also became the youngest player to represent the USA national team, aged 16 years and 234 days, and it appeared that the North American country had finally unearthed their first proper football superstar.
USAGMS Related
10 Greatest USA Players in Football History [Ranked]
Including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Christian Pulisic, the best USMNT players of all time have been ranked.
Sir Alex Ferguson's Assessment of Freddy Adu
United legend handed Adu an opportunity to secure a deal
Then, in November 2006, Adu was handed a two-week trial at European giants Manchester United by the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, who was keen to take a closer look at this potential phenomenon. The Scot told reporters at the time: "I think we would be interested, he's only young but we have known of him for a long time. We tried to get him here some years ago but he signed for DC United and that stopped the progress of us keeping tabs on him."
Man United were top of the Premier League table at the time and boasted a host of household names in their star-studded squad including Ronaldo, Rooney, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. If he could prove his worth during his fortnight at Carrington then Adu had the opportunity to strike a deal with arguably the world’s biggest football club at the time.
Ferguson was an excellent judge of talent, so what did he make of Adu after his two-week trial with United? Well, considering how his career eventually panned out, you might be surprised to know that he was impressed with the teenage sensation.
"Freddy has done all right. He is a talented boy,” Fergie was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "He'll go back to the US and we'll keep a check on him. When he is 18, we will have to assess what we can do next."
On the purpose of the two-week trial, Ferguson added:
"What we did was to bring him here to give him an idea of what United was like so he could see the place and see how comfortable he was with it. He is a very confident and good, young boy but there is nothing we can do about him."
Due to UK employment law, United were unable to make an offer for Adu until he turned 18. While Ferguson said he would keep tabs on the youngster, The Guardian revealed several weeks later that the United manager had dropped his interest due to reservations over the teenager’s temperament.
Ferguson ultimately felt that Adu lacked the mentality required to become a Manchester United player - a decision that now looks shrewd with the benefit of hindsight. Adu eventually sealed a move to Europe in 2007, signing for Portuguese side Benfica, but only played a handful of games before he was loaned out to AS Monaco, then Belenenses, then Aris and finally Caykur Rizespor.
MixCollage-17-Dec-2023-12-31-PM-8479 Related
David Beckham’s Response After Ferguson Named Four World-Class Man Utd Players
David Beckham had the perfect response when Sir Alex Ferguson said he only managed four world-class players at Man Utd.
Freddy Adu Spoke About His Man Utd Trial
Holds fond memories from his fortnight at Carrington
By this point, it was already clear that Adu wasn’t going to live up to those astonishingly high expectations - and by 2011 he was back in Major League Soccer with Philadelphia Union. Nevertheless, Adu still holds fond memories from his fortnight with United - particularly training alongside Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers in history.
"It meant the world to me to hear that from Sir Alex Ferguson because, in my opinion, he was the best coach in the world," Adu said, per Goal, on being labelled a “talented boy” by the United great. "The guy is legendary and he knew talent, so when he sees you and he says that you are very talented, that just validated the amount of talent that I had and gave me a lot of confidence.
"When I went there I did well, so after being at Man U and being around all those players, I remember performing extremely well because my confidence was at an all-time high. At that time, just being around those players for a few weeks, took my game to another level."
He continued: "I played foot-golf with Kieran Richardson, Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick, which was a great moment for me. I think Kieran Richardson won! From my memory, Kieran Richardson won and he was pretty damn good at foot-golf!"
And on Ronaldo, Adu added: "One day after a session I was getting ready to go back to my place when Cristiano Ronaldo pulled up in his car next to me, and was just really, really nice and said 'Hey man! If you need anything let me know!' He offered to take me out to dinner, to show me around and just so that I knew I wasn't alone over there - that blew my mind!
"I had no idea that Cristiano was such a nice person and I became an instant Ronaldo fan in that moment - he couldn't have been any nicer. At that point, I said that this is the person I want to be, and how I want to carry myself, because other people were looking at me the way I was looking at Cristiano - you just have to be nice to people, no matter what. So that, for me, was an incredible moment.
"I actually didn't get a chance to hang out with Cristiano after that, because I was the young kid that was being hosted so wanted to be respectful. I told him that if I'm ever back, that I would hold him to the promise of dinner!"