Adu was, shall we say, not retained by Serbian club FK Jagodina. It was certainly not the first time Adu was told his services were no longer required. If it is the last time, the precipitous fall from the sport's pantheon of hyped uber-prospects will make a fascinating, albeit sad, story.
It was Jan. 16, 2004, that Adu was drafted first overall in the Major League Soccer SuperDraft by D.C. United. At the time, it was believed that D.C. United had lucked into selecting a franchise cornerstone. Adu was 14 years old on the day he was drafted into MLS, and the future ahead of him was blindingly bright.
Darren Rovell's ESPN.com piece on Adu's inking of a $1 million apparel and shoe deal with Nike in 2003 contains several cringeworthy passages seen in the cold light of 2015:"Once labelled as 'the next Pele' during the early stages of his career, the Ghana-born forward has played just 59 minutes of competitive football since the end of the 2012 MLS season," was the cutting summary by Bretland in his Daily Mail piece.
News of Adu's recent washout in Serbia has been similarly unkind in the States.FK Jagodina was "the 10th stop of Adu’s nomadic professional career which features stints in the United States, Portugal, France, Greece, Turkey, Brazil and now Serbia," was how Andy Edwards put it for Pro Soccer Talk.
Edwards also asked the question that, really, any sentient soccer pundit would ask: "With all due respect to the Serbian league, if Adu can’t get into a team there, where can he find regular first-team games?"
As of this writing, the answer is still beyond unclear.What if I told you that, at age 25, soccer prodigy-turned-cautionary tale Freddy Adu's career might as well be over?
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2327783-charting-where-it-all-went-wrong-for-new-pele-freddy-adu
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