Freddy Adu

[Oscar Cardozo]

SI.com - Writers - Grant Wahl: Beckham likely will be limited to token appearance - Thursday July 19, 2007 5:21PM

[Freddy Adu]

Definetly not goign to happen.

[Oscar Cardozo]

It would be nice to happen.

[Oscar Cardozo]

SI.com - Writers - Grant Wahl: Beckham likely will be limited to token appearance - Thursday July 19, 2007 5:21PM

Jornal a bola, benfica on the run for F Adu
along with Everton, Tottenham, Celtic
**abola.pt - «A BOLA on-line»

[Amo-te Benfica]

I've heard his name a lot but don't know much about him. Can anyone tell me what he's like, what he's good at etc?

[Freddy Adu]

Originally Posted by Ninguem Para O Benfica

I've heard his name a lot but don't know much about him. Can anyone tell me what he's like, what he's good at etc?

Adu isnt the best player out there but he is a star.He was great at the Under 20 World Cup and hopefully he can continue his success.

[Freddy Adu]

New News
Adu on the Move?

Freddy Adu is not yet a star of the magnitude that he can go by one name, like a legion of Brazilians, but ever since he signed a five-year contract that pays him $500,000 a season with Major League Soccer at age 14, Adu has been called a lot of names, not all of them complimentary.
Freddy Adu, blowing by Poland’s Jaroslaw Fojut during the U-20 World Cup, scored 3 goals and had 2 assists in the tournament. (David Boily/AFP/Getty Images)
But now it appears that Adu, fresh off a strong performance as the captain of the United States team at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, is ready to say thank you very much to M.L.S., his fans and supporters and head to Europe — at least that’s his plan.
According to a report in The Salt Lake City Tribune, Adu’s agent Richard Motzkin is trying to engineer Adu’s transfer to a European club, possibly Benfica in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.
Benfica is reported to be willing to play M.L.S., which owns all player contracts, a $4 million transfer fee, about $3 million less than M.L.S. has apparently requested. Adu’s contract expires at the end of the year, but, as it does with most player contracts, M.L.S. holds a two-year option on Adu and is not required to sell him if it does not receive good value in return. Because of the option, the league is in no danger of Adu playing out his contract and leaving with no payment to the league.

Adu did not play in last weekend’s exhibition match between his current club team, Real Salt Lake, and visiting Everton of England. He is, however, expected to play in another exhibition match this week against visiting Boca Juniors of Argentina. Adu is playing his first (and perhaps only) season in Utah after having been traded by D.C. United, which picked the youngster the No. 1 pick over all in 2004.
So far this season, Adu has only 1 goal and 2 assists in 11 games for Real Salt Lake, a lack of production that has puzzled club officials. When he was first traded, Adu said he was happy to have been reunited with Coach John Ellinger, who was also the coach of United States youth teams that Adu played on. But Ellinger only lasted a few games this season before being replaced by Jason Kreis. In his M.L.S. career, Adu has 12 goals and 19 assists and has not had nearly the impact that was anticipated when he joined the league in a highly publicized, and orchestrated deal.
In fact, it was Motzkin and the Adu family who insisted to M.L.S. that Adu, whose family had settled in a Washington suburb after immigrating from Ghana, must play with his hometown team so he could live at home. The league then engineered a suspect trade with F.C. Dallas, which held the top draft pick. You have to wonder what might have happened if Adu, instead of being granted his D.C. wish, had been assigned to the sorry MetroStars — it might have been a shot in the arm in the New York/New Jersey area that the league has been hungering for since its inception in 1996.
Officials at SCP Worldwide, the New York-based company run by Dave Checketts that operates Real Salt Lake, declined to comment, referring all questions to M.L.S. An e-mail message seeking comment sent to Ivan Gazidis, the league’s deputy commissioner, was not immediately returned.
Adu has long said he wants to continue his career in Europe. Tough visa restrictions in England, which uses a formula based on how many times a player has played for his national team, will probably preclude Adu’s move to the Premier League any time soon. Other countries in the European Union have varying limits on how many non-E.U. citizens can play on their domestic soccer teams. That is why is it more likely that if, when, Adu is transferred, he will end up in places like Portugal, the Netherlands or perhaps Germany.
After the 2006 M.L.S. season, Adu trained briefly with Manchester United, but it was a contentious time since the team’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, never signed off on the training session and Adu worked primarily with United’s youth teams. Word was that Adu’s trip was engineered by Nike, the sporting goods company that sponsors him (to the tune of $1 million a year) and also sponsors Manchester United.
Adu is still in M.L.S. for two reasons: The high asking price put on his head by M.L.S.; and perhaps a realization by some of the top European clubs that the player is not all he is cracked up to be. Hard to believe, but at 18, the clock is ticking loudly for Freddy Adu.

[Amo-te Benfica]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Adu isnt the best player out there but he is a star.He was great at the Under 20 World Cup and hopefully he can continue his success.

hmmm...he does show flashes of brilliance. I can see where there's hype, but as the video said, the guy is over-rated and over hyped.

He can run pretty damn fast, but his techniquer isn't the best and often trips over himself. I'm not relaly in favour of him moving to Benfica.

[Oscar Cardozo]

the article about MLS agreement
SI.com - Soccer - MLS, Benfica agree on $2M Adu transfer - Tuesday July 24, 2007 10:37PM


If this really does happen we will win the liga no doubt about it.

[Amo-te Benfica]

I think we'll win the league with or without him. "Adu", will not single handly win a league title. I don't even want him at Benfica.

[egypt man]

Originally Posted by Ninguem Para O Benfica

I think we'll win the league with or without him. "Adu", will not single handly win a league title. I don't even want him at Benfica.

man ur dreamin ur defence sucks luizao is just tall but the only thing that u have and porto dont is the ofence miccoli nunuo gomes
man their good

[Freddy Adu]

First of all Miccoli left.
Nuno Gomes isnt one of the bests.
Simao is the best then Rui Costa then maybe Nuno and we got a bunch of young kids who WILL Turn out to be great.

[Oscar Cardozo]

OJOGO ONLINE
made it official
OJOGO ONLINE

[Oscar Cardozo]

Jornal a bola made it official

bottom of the page
:.: Jornal Record :.:

[Oscar Cardozo]

It's apparent that Benfica are rebuilding..It's going to be a strange year ahead and it could either be a disaster or glorious...

[Freddy Adu]

Adu por horas
ACORDO DE CINCO ÉPOCAS PARA VAGA DE SIMÃO
O Benfica já tinha sondado Freddy Adu, o negócio estagnou nas últimas semanas mas, depois da saída de Simão para o Atlético de Madrid, as águias voltaram ao ataque pelo internacional Sub-20 dos Estados Unidos, com quem já têm um acordo para um contrato de 5 temporadas. O fecho do negócio, segundo apurámos, estará por horas.

Confirmada a partida do capitão, Fernando Santos perdeu um elemento que podia jogar como avançado. Por isso mesmo, o sector é reforçado. Notícias chegadas da América do Norte nos últimos dias relatam que o Benfica já chegou a acordo com a MLS, a Liga que organiza o campeonato e gere as transferências.

Em cima da mesa estarão certa de 2 milhões de euros pelo passe do jovem (18 anos) futebolista de origem ganesa, que se estreou com 14 anos nos relvados onde agora andam David Beckham e Abel Xavier.

O jogador terá rejeitado uma primeira proposta de contrato apresentada pelas águias mas instruiu o seu empresário no sentido de não fechar a porta ao Benfica. E foi precisamente por aí que as águias, após nova investida, chegaram a um entendimento, batendo emblemas interessados no futebol do atacante, como o Celtic de Glasgow.

[Freddy Adu]

Moreira: «Trabalho já começou»
GUARDA-REDES COM ALTA APÓS OPERAÇÃO
Moreira recebeu alta ontem, após ser observado pelo médico António Martins. O guarda-redes, que foi submetido a uma artroscopia à cartilagem do joelho esquerdo, abandonou as instalações do Hospital Sant’Ana acompanhado da mulher e da mãe, sensivelmente pelas 13.20.

Animado, o camisola 1 das águias revelou que “a reabilitação funcional” já está em andamento: “O trabalho começou ontem. Agora, é fazer o estipulado para poder voltar o mais rápido possível”, afirmou Moreira, revelando que “correu tudo muito bem antes, durante e depois da operação. Agora, há que pensar em recuperar bem”, salientou.

O tempo previsto para o regresso ao relvado é de quatro meses, sendo provável que durante o mês de Dezembro, o guarda-redes possa voltar em pleno à competição. Recorde-se que o presidente Luís Filipe Vieira resolveu dar uma palavra de apoio a José Moreira na conferência da passada quinta-feira, lembrando que “é um jovem com claras capacidades e talento para lutar por um lugar na baliza do Benfica”.

[Freddy Adu]

Adu vem assinar
AVANÇADO ESPERADO AMANHÃ EM LISBOAFreddy Adu está, neste momento, a caminho de Lisboa e deve chegar amanhã ao aeroporto da Portela.

O talentoso jogador norte-americano de origem ganesa já não jogou ontem pelo Real Salt Lake no encontro que opôs a equipa do Utah à New England Revolution porque já estava a caminho de Washington onde se ia reunir com a família e preparar a partida para Portugal.

“A MLS e o Real Salt Lake autorizaram Freddy Adu a viajar para Portugal para encetar negociações com o Benfica”, anunciou ontem o treinador do Salt Lake, Jason Kreis, que agradeceu o contributo do jogador nos anos que representou o clube.

Feito

O internacional que brilhou pelos Estados Unidos no Mundial Sub-20 chegará a Lisboa acompanhado pelo seu representante, Richard Motzkin, e sua mãe.

O objectivo da viagem é limar as últimas arestas de um acordo que, segundo uma fonte do Real Salt Lake, está “praticamente feito”.

Negócio

Um acordo que se desenha favorável para todas as partes. Adu deverá assinar um contrato válido por 5 épocas com o Benfica que terá de desembolsar 2 milhões de euros para a MLS, entidade que gere o futebol norte-americano e que depois distribuirá parte da verba ao Real Salt Lake.

Um valor que, caso se confirme o potencial futebolístico de um jogador que se estreou como profissional aos 14 anos e que foi publicitado como “o novo Pelé”, pode revelar-se um excelente negócio para o clube da Luz.

Freddy Adu é um jogador dotado de boa técnica individual, que gosta de actuar atrás dos avançados ou como segundo ponta-de-lança. Nos EUA, todavia, actuava amarrado ao lado esquerdo do meio-campo.

[Freddy Adu]

Adu resists Premiership for Benfica move
tribalfooball.com - July 29, 2007

Freddy Adu is set to resist interest from England to sign with Portuguese giants Benfica. Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis has confirmed teenage midfielder Adu has been granted permission to speak to Benfica over a proposed move to Europe.
Adu was not present for Real Salt Lake's game against the New England Revolution on Saturday night and Kreis acknowledges he does not expect Adu to return to the club.
"Major League Soccer and Real Salt Lake have given permission to Freddy Adu to travel to Europe to continue discussions with Portuguese club Benfica," said Kreis.
"This is certainly a scenario that does not surprise us, and we would like to thank Freddy for his time here and wish him the best of luck."
A native of Ghana, the 18-year-old has been previously linked to several of Europe's top clubs, including Chelsea and Real Madrid while he also spent two weeks on trial with Manchester United last year.
Adu has scored one goal and contributed two assists in 11 games this season with Salt Lake, who acquired the midfielder in a trade from D.C in December last year.
Kreis added: "Really, what we know about it is that Freddy has received a fantastic opportunity to go overseas and play, where he has said he wanted to (play) for a while.
"In my opinion, I have to respect that and allow him the opportunity to do that. If we had forced him to play here, there would be a possibly injury, and that whole deal could be scrapped."

[Freddy Adu]

The Monday MLS Breakdown: Bye, Bye, Freddy After three-and-a-half seasons in Major League Soccer, Freddy Adu is off to Portugal. Goal.com USA's Kyle McCarthy says it was a relationship that didn't yield as much success that either party would have predicted back in 2004.If you said that Freddy Adu’s transfer out of Major League Soccer would have been a good idea weeks after Adu was introduced to the league in 2004, you may have been laughed out of the room because Adu was too valuable to the league or complimented because you thought Adu would reap an excessive transfer fee upon his departure.
Neither of those things happened this week as Adu heads for Lisbon to join Portuguese powerhouse Benfica for a sum reportedly in the region of $2 million.
That’s not the fee that MLS hoped to recover for a player that has received the time, money, and capital Adu has from the league, but it’s one of the most logical transfer moves in league history because it lets an asset leave the league for a reasonable sum at a time both can claim is mutually beneficial.
The league simply had to show Adu the door at some point this season.
The reason, the one so often cited in these matters, is money.
Adu makes approximately $500,000 per season to play in MLS. Adu, alongside, albeit to a lesser extent, Columbus’s Danny Szetela, represents the rare MLS signing that committed significant money towards potential rather than proven ability.
It was expected that Adu would mature at a rapid pace and grow in influence and stature along with the league he was supposed to carry on his back. He was the young Michael Jordan or the fledgling LeBron James. He was the Messiah to carry the league to the Promised Land.
But it never really developed that way for Adu. He became, at his peak in the league, a pretty useful squad player that could start for most teams. He developed under the autocratic Peter Nowak in D.C., but he never flourished.
For $500,000, you’re supposed to flourish in this league.
Underneath the withering spotlight, Adu simply could not develop to the point where he was a consistent and proven performer in league player. A slight player, Adu requires on shifty play and sheer bravado to succeed. It’s a potion for success most profitable in leagues where skill is rewarded, which only happens in the American top flight to the most sublime of its participants.
Shuffled around to positions away from his preferred berth in the center, Adu never really settled in the league. Part of it was the money and the expectation; perhaps it was too much, too soon for the kid with all the talent in the world who couldn’t even vote. He was an instant superstar in a league full of day-jobbers.
And as Adu developed, he settled into that day-jobber role. He was a piece, not an essential cog. He played a vital role in United’s championship in 2005, but dropped off in importance with Christian Gomez’s arrival during that season and clashed with Nowak in 2006. United made him expendable in the off-season when Tom Soehn took over and RSL shifted him to the wing when Mehdi Ballouchy ousted him from his expected role in central midfield during the preseason.
Adu’s performance posed a significant problem for the league after it introduced the Designated Player rule.
The advertising capital has long since petered out. Adu’s influence over crowds and media members has waned as the hype has been extinguished. The $500,000 per year investment was potential and production entering this season, and the production of one goal and one assist just did not cut it.
What was MLS to do as Adu entered into his walk year after the end of next season? Any extension would have required a significant pay cut, one that Adu would not swallow with the European offers. Extending Adu along similar terms would send a horrible message to players who have a greater impact on matches and provide fodder for agents looking for supplemental.
It also saves the league from the rather sticky situation of trying to get Real Salt Lake to use its Developmental Player exception on Adu, something that was not in the offing.
In some ways, Adu was the precursor to the newly instituted mechanism. He was signed for reasons of marketing and (in Adu’s case, future) talent to a contract outside the bounds of the league’s wage structure and expected to yield significant benefits to both team and league.
With Adu’s production and RSL’s needs, there was no way Jason Kreis could commit to Adu as his DP next season. Coupled with Adu’s desire to play in Europe, the league’s hand was forced and it parlayed Adu’s performances in the U-20 World Cup to procure the necessary offers.
Adu’s sale cashes in a gamble did not pay off for the league and for Adu.
But there is time to rescue Freddy from the path of a failed phenom. Adu is supremely gifted on the ball and will thrive in an environment that cultivates individual play and creativity. In those surroundings, he’ll be forced to make the much-needed move to the flank he resisted in MLS, but is vital for his continued growth on the European stage.
Perhaps most importantly, Adu will be able to develop away from the prying eyes and the expectations that have burdened him to this point. He’s not a first-team regular at Benfica from the outset, but he can get there and perhaps beyond. With time, patience, and dedication, Adu will finally be able to develop the natural gifts he possesses and align his game to suit his abilities and his body type.
It’s not a matter of whether or not MLS got enough money for Adu (it did) or whether Real Salt Lake wanted to let him go (they had to), but it’s a matter of the league, for once, taking into account the player’s interests and the interests of the league as a whole.
In that context, it’s a much needed win to close a relationship that didn’t have as many of victories as either party expected.

[Oscar Cardozo]

Connolly: Portugal Won't Be Easy for Adu
Back on April 3, 2004, lurking in the corner of D.C. United’s locker room in the aftermath of Freddy Adu’s first MLS game was then-U.S. National Team head coach Bruce Arena. He was hesitant to talk about the 14-year-old phenom, almost as though he didn’t want to add to the nonstop hype that had been going on for weeks leading up to that afternoon. Finally, he shook his head, flashed a few writers that knowing smirk and uttered the words that no one seemed to want to hear:
“We all have to be patient.”
When it came to Freddy Adu, hardly anyone was ever patient during his three-plus seasons in Major League Soccer. And when someone actually was -- like former D.C. United coach Peter Nowak -- he was vilified by many, including Adu and members of his entourage, both through the media and behind closed doors.
Everyone seemed to want Adu to do what David Beckham is supposed to be doing right now: Light up the league by scoring goals in bunches, lift the sport into the stratosphere, and be a media darling in the process.
With Adu, it simply was never going to happen. Not as a teenager. He had the necessary skills to breakdown a defender and score highlight-reel goals, which he did at times, but his overall game was still incomplete and his decision-making was that of, well, a kid his age.
At no time was his talent ever in question. Even right now, if he walked onto a college field as an unknown 18-year-old, he would quickly be regarded as The Next Great American Player within a month. He’s that good for his age. It’s just he’s not that good to be dominating when playing against men, as was the case during his days in MLS.
By the way, it’s okay that he didn’t set MLS on fire. Few have. And there have only been a very select few teenage superstars who could have approached the expectations that were laid out in front of him. Maybe Lionel Messi could have. Maybe Carlos Tevez. Maybe, a few years back, Michael Owen might have been able to accomplish such a feat, as well.
If anything, Adu’s days in MLS became a testament to the growing stature of the league. As good as he was at a ridiculously young age, he still wasn’t good enough to start for D.C. United. And even when he did deserve to be in the starting XI with both United and Real Salt Lake, there was always another player there to take his coveted attacking midfielder role. While Adu performed well in that spot under Thomas Rongen with the U.S. Under-20 National Team, his best moments in MLS came as a left winger, where he could utilize his one v. one attacking abilities and not have to worry about tracking back on defense.
Now that the book on Adu’s MLS career (for now) has been closed, his grand totals add up to the following:
Games played: 98; Games started: 69; Goals scored: 12; Assists: 19.
His numbers are neither overwhelming nor underwhelming. His production was purely average. The only thing is, he wasn’t signed for half a million bucks or given so much publicity to be average.
At no time in MLS would anyone have put Adu into the upper-echelon of players. In fact, you’d have to list a lot of strikers before getting to the starlet’s name. He wasn’t the best player on the worst team in the league, and he wouldn’t have been a sure-fire starter on half of the teams in MLS.
We say this today not to belittle Adu -- who, despite some media outbursts and immature reactions to Nowak’s decisions during his time at D.C. United, is very media-friendly and an engaging personality – but rather because it simply needs to be said as he leaves MLS and heads to a tougher league to play for one of its best teams. The Portuguese Superliga will not be a picnic. And finding time on the field for a world-known entity like Benfica will not be easy. Just making the 18-man gameday roster will be a small victory at the start of the season.
In other words, don’t expect too much right off the bat. As Arena once said about the teen, we all have to be patient.
When it comes to Freddy Adu, those words ring even truer now than they did three-plus years ago.

[Freddy Adu]

Adu did not travel with Benfica to the Guidiana Tourney.

[Amo-te Benfica]

Freddy Adu is back in Lisbon after 4 days in America, as stated above he missed the Tourneio Da Guadania


Freddy Adu já está em Lisboa
O norte-americano Freddy Adu regressou hoje a Lisboa depois de quatro dias nos Estados Unidos e já deverá estar amanhã às ordens do técnico do Benfica Fernando Santos.

O jogador sabe que não será fácil impor-se no Benfica, mas não quer desperdiçar esta oportunidade: «Obviamente que não vai ser fácil adaptar-me inicialmente, mas vou fazer tudo o que estivar ao meu alcance para entrar na equipa. Espero que ganhemos o maior número de jogos possíveis.»

Quanto à sua opinião sobre o futebol português, Adu afirma: «É espectacular, encaixa perfeitamente no meu estilo», e deixa a promessa: «Vamos tentar jogar um futebol atractivo», afirmou o avançado.

«Queria fazer parte de algo grande e estar no futebol europeu. Agora que finalmente tive essa oportunidade, quero tirar todo o partido disso.»

Source: abola.pt

[Freddy Adu]

Freddy Adu looked lost out on the field yesterday.Hopefully he can wake up and start scoring goals for us on our next match.

[Oscar Cardozo]

If he plays and I just noticed Liga for us oin 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!

[Oscar Cardozo]

OJOGO ONLINE
Adu more confident I guess

[grassman]

I really hope the FM hype is true

[Oscar Cardozo]

He is left out again by Jose Antonio Camacho for AC Milan.He is still a young player and Camacho plays the players in best fitness and I guess Adu wasn't fit to play so he should be playing for Under 19 team in the Under Nine-Teen league.

[grassman]

He has no Tactical Awareness thats why he's not playing.

[Oscar Cardozo]

**abola.pt - «A BOLA on-line»
Scored in U19 Game