Over the years, there have been thousands of wonderkids in Football Manager. We have covered many of those promising young players on our website.
One player who defines the term wonderkid is Freddy Adu. We covered his story slightly in one of our old posts about wonderkids. Here we will take a deeper look at the former wonderkid’s career and where the youngster ended up.
Not just a Football Manager wonderkid
Often, Football Manager players first discover wonderkids via the game. However, arguably, Adu became world-renowned in real life before he became a popular wonderkid in the game.
In fact, at just 14 years of age, Adu signed a contract with DC United after being picked in the MLS SuperDraft in January 2004. Just for context, future USA hero Clint Dempsey was chosen 8th place in the same draft. Fair to say that Dempsey impacted the beautiful game more, especially for the USA national team.
Adu was even given a boot deal by sports giants Nike. The Ghana-born attacking midfielder had the world at his feet, with big expectations surrounding the teenager. His potential led to the youngster being compared to the great Brazilian superstar Pele.
Freddy Adu in Football Manager
Football Manager players first saw Freddy Adu in FM25. His stats were unbelievable for a player of 14, as by the time the game had come out, he had already caught the world’s attention in real life. In fact, in 2006, he became the youngest player to represent the USMNT.
In FM, by the time Adu reaches his late teens or his early 20s, the attacking midfielder becomes a world-class performer. He is the sort of player you want to sign in the first transfer window. If it’s left much later, then he’s difficult to sign as he is usually snapped up by one of the elite clubs.
Not only did Adu become a prolific goal scorer in a couple of editions of Football Manager, but he also had the knack of producing assists. These characteristics often made him one of the best players in the world.
His eventual ability only reflected what everybody believed Adu would become. If only Adu lived up to his potential in real life. His career didn’t quite pan out as expected.
What happened to Adu in real life?
From when he signed with DC United until 2006, Adu made 103 appearances in all competitions for the club from the US capital, with 87 of the appearances coming in MLS. During that time, he scored 12 goals. Nobody could have predicted then that his time with United would be the most prolific and successful of his playing career.
In December 2006, Adu moved to Real Salt Lake in exchange for a major allocation, goalkeeper Jay Nolly, and future considerations. His time in Salt Lake was short-lived, as he made just 11 appearances, scoring once.
His performances at the U-20 World Cup in 2007 saw him attract interest from European clubs. Portuguese giants Benfica decided to splash out $ 2 million to sign the wonderkid.
He made just 21 appearances for the Eagles, all of which came in the 2007/08 season, as he scored five goals. Then followed a series of loan spells, including at Monaco, Belenenses, Aris and finally Çaykur Rizespor. Adu made just 39 appearances across all four loan moves and scored a disappointing six goals.
After the unsuccessful loan spells, Adu returned to the MLS with Philadelphia Union, where his career finally looked like taking off properly, especially in the second season, when he scored eight goals in 28 appearances in all competitions.
However, in 2013, the attacking midfielder was on the move once again, as after 41 appearances and ten goals for the Union, he joined Brazilian club Bahia. It was the start of another nomadic run for the Adu, as he had spells in Serbia with Jagodina and Finland with KuPS and SC Kuopio Futis-98.
He struggled for minutes at all the clubs and once again returned to the United States, looking to revive his career in 2015 with the North American Soccer League outfit Tampa Bay Rowdies.
A record of 13 appearances over two seasons says it all about his time in Tampa. His next stop was the Las Vegas Lights in the United Soccer League in 2018. He made 15 appearances and scored one goal, but for some reason, it once again didn’t work out.
Adu took a two-year break to work as a youth coach in Maryland before his final attempt at making something of his career in the Swedish third tier in 2020 with Österlen FF. However, his contract was terminated after just a month because the club didn’t believe he was fit enough to return to professional football.
What went wrong for Adu?
Freddy Adu had football talent and potential, but why didn’t he fulfil his potential at the highest level? Many factors contributed to Adu struggling to live up to his potential.
One of those factors was the massive hype surrounding him when he was so young. That hype must have been difficult to deal with, especially as he was labelled as ‘the saviour of American Soccer’.
Another key factor in his downfall, as Adu himself stated, was the fact that he didn’t look after himself like a professional footballer. He didn’t get the proper rest or have the diet of a professional footballer, which are vital to the success of any player, especially in the developmental years.
His poor career decisions also played a part in his failings as a player. Adu has stated that he felt his loan move to Monaco in particular was a big mistake.
Whatever the reasons for Freddy Adu not living up to his hype, he still had a football career, just not what many expected for him. It was always going to be difficult for the attacking midfielder to live up to the ridiculous expectations of his mid-teens.
In the end, his story showed that you need more than just technical ability to succeed in football. Now in his mid-30s, it seems that Adu could be the ideal person to talk to youngsters about living right to fulfil their potential. That could well be of far more use to the beautiful game than his underwhelming playing career.
