Don Clarke

Freddy Adu

Personal information
Full name	Fredua Koranteng Adu
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder / Winger / Forward
Team information
Current team	AS Monaco
Number	8
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 9 June 2008

Fredua Koranteng "Freddy" Adu (born June 2, 1989 in Tema, Ghana) is an American association football forward or attacking midfielder. He plays for AS Monaco on loan from S.L. Benfica.

Childhood

Adu grew up in the port city of Tema, where he played football against men three times his age. When he was eight, his mother won the Green Card Lottery, and he and his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, and in 2003 he became a U.S. citizen. Soon after arriving in the United States, he was discovered by a local soccer coach and began playing with boys several years older. Adu attended The Heights School, a private school in Potomac, Maryland, for several years. While playing with the U.S. Olympic Development Program in an under-14 tournament against the youth squads of such traditionally strong Italian teams as Lazio of Rome and Turin’s Juventus, Freddy’s team won the competition and he led the tournament in scoring and was named MVP. Adu was noticed by Italian football clubs, including Inter Milan, who discussed a six-figure offer for him that was turned down by his mother on the advice of his agents. He was only 10 years old at that time.

At age 12 in January 2002, Adu joined the IMG Soccer Academy, U.S. Soccer's full-time residency program in Bradenton, Florida. He made his professional debut in Major League Soccer in early 2004, at just 14 years of age, and now plays for the United States Under-23 and men's national teams.

Adu has played for the United States in five international tournaments: the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland, the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates, the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, and the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Professional career

At the age of 14, Adu became the youngest American athlete in over 100 years to sign a major league pro contract - in any team sport - when he was chosen by DC United as the number one overall pick in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft, and won the MLS Cup title with them that year.

MLS Years

In order to allow Adu to play close to home, MLS assigned him to D.C. United on November 18, 2003, working a deal with the Dallas Burn, who owned the top pick in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. Dallas was compensated with a player allocation. Having already signed with D.C. United, Adu effectively became the first player selected in that draft, two months before it officially took place. D.C. United had previously signed American youngsters Bobby Convey in 2000, aged 16, and Santino Quaranta in 2001 at 16 years and four months — each at the time the youngest MLS player.

D.C United

On April 3, Adu came on in United's first game of the 2004 season against the San Jose Earthquakes as a second-half substitute, making him the youngest player to appear in United States professional sports since 1887 (the next youngest was fifteen-year-old Joe Nuxhall, who played Major League Baseball in Cincinnati in 1944). On 17 April, at the age of 14, Adu scored his first professional goal in the 75th minute of a 3-2 away loss against the MetroStars. He became the youngest player in MLS History ever to score a goal (although he had also scored for DC United in an earlier tournament, the Carolina Challenge Cup, on March 20 against the Charleston Battery).

In his first season as a pro, Adu finished the year with five goals and three assists, while playing in all 30 regular season games. Although briefly a starter, Adu was relegated to a substitute when D.C. United acquired central midfielder Christian Gómez mid-season, and it was in this role that he appeared in United's MLS Cup victory. He played in three of DC's four playoff games, coming off the bench each time; he tallied one assist in the postseason.

Adu was criticized from a number of different angles in his first season as a professional. Some soccer commentators have suggested that Adu was too young to be playing professionally and that he needed more time to develop mentally and physically amongst players his own age. In his second season, he was suspended for one game after he complained about his playing time in the media. However, his first two years in MLS were also punctuated by notable accomplishments, including being awarded player of the week and goal of the week multiple times. Continued development, especially of his defensive skills, helped Adu become a starting midfielder during the 2006 season. In addition, Adu had been chosen to take spot kicks during DC United's two penalty shootouts and did not miss. He was selected to the MLS All-Star team twice, once as a commissioner's choice and once as the coach's. He was selected to the MLS 2006 semifinals Best XI by SoccerAmerica magazine. In 2005 he was nominated for FIFPRO Young player of the year.

Real Salt Lake

On December 11, 2006, D.C. United traded Adu and goalkeeper Nick Rimando to Real Salt Lake in exchange for a major allocation, goalkeeper Jay Nolly, and future considerations. Adu made his debut for Real Salt Lake on April 7, 2007, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2-2 draw with FC Dallas. He scored his first goal for the club on May 20, 2007, converting a penalty kick in the 68th minute of a 2-1 loss to FC Dallas. Adu went on to score his second goal with Salt Lake from another penalty in a 1-1 draw against Boca Juniors. Adu was also captain of the U-20 United States men's national team in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. After the conclusion of that tournament, Benfica of the Portuguese Liga secured Adu's rights from MLS for a transfer fee of US$2 million.

S.L. Benfica

On July 28, 2007, Adu opted out of playing for Real in their regular-season match, and later that day, boarded a plane to Portugal to negotiate with Benfica. On Monday, 30 July, Benfica issued an official statement announcing that Adu had been transferred to their club. The following day, the signing was completed and he trained with the team in Lisbon.

On August 14, 2007, Adu made his debut with Benfica against FC Copenhagen in a UEFA Champions League qualifying match, coming into the game in the 37th minute as a substitute. It was reported that Benfica's coaching staff was impressed with Adu's skills and attitude in training and were planning to increase the young American's exposure during the autumn.

However, after a promising start (3 goals scored in the first half of the season), he failed to settle in a regular place in the team, with only 11 games played in the whole season.

AS Monaco

In July 2008, Adu joined French club AS Monaco on a season-long loan, with an option to join the Ligue 1 club permanently at the end of the loan.

Recently he has been linked with Scottish club Glasgow Rangers and Irish club Galway United.

International career

Adu was called into the United States National Team camp for a friendly match against Canada by coach Bruce Arena in January 2006. On January 22 Adu became the youngest player to debut with the U.S. national team when he replaced an injured Eddie Johnson in the 81st minute of a friendly against Canada at the University of San Diego's Torero Stadium in San Diego, California.

In January 2007 Adu captained the United States U-20 men's national team as it qualified for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada. By playing in the 2007 tournament finals, held from June to July, Adu became only the second player in the world to play in three FIFA U-20 World Cups. On July 3, 2007, Adu scored a hat-trick in USA's 6-1 victory over Poland in the group stage of the tournament. This accomplishment made him the first player to ever score a hat trick in both the U-20 and U-17 World Cups. In the following 2-1 victory over Brazil Adu assisted on both USA goals by Jozy Altidore.

Adu was invited by the general secretary of FIFA to participate in the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw as the North American representative on November 25, 2007, in Durban, South Africa. However, the ceremony conflicted with his Benfica game schedule and he was not able to attend.

Adu made his first start for the senior international team in a friendly against South Africa on November 17, 2007.

Adu helped lead the U-23 men's national team in its campaign to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. He scored two goals from free kicks in the USA's 3-0 win over Canada in the semifinals of the tournament, which ultimately qualified them for the Olympics along with Honduras. He scored four goals in total in the three games in which he played, leading all players in scoring, and was selected to the tournament Best XI.

Adu appeared as a substitute in a international friendly against England on May 28, 2008, which resulted in a 2-0 loss. The following week, on June 4, Adu started against Spain in a game the US lost 1-0. Adu then appeared as a substitute in the USA's game against Argentina at Giants Stadium. Adu played in both legs of the 2nd round qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup against Barbados on June 8 and June 22, 2008, starting in the latter. He provided the assist on Eddie Lewis' goal, the lone goal in the 2nd leg of the United States 1-0 victory (9-0 aggregate) in Barbados.

On July 15, 2008, Adu was named to the 18-man squad that represented the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Adu played in the first two games of group play against Japan and Netherlands. He assisted on a Sacha Kljestan goal in the Netherlands match, but he, as well as teammate Michael Bradley, was then suspended for the final game of group play against Nigeria after each player earned his second yellow card of group play late in the Netherlands match. The US team was eliminated from the Olympics after falling to Nigeria.

Titles and awards

With DC United (2004-2006)

• MLS Cup Champions 2004
• MLS Supporter's Shield 2006
• MLS All-Star 2004
• MLS All-Star 2006

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004||rowspan="3"|D.C. United||rowspan="3"|Major League Soccer||30||5|||||||| |- |2005||25||4|||||||| |- |2006||32||2|||||||| |- |2007||Real Salt Lake||Major League Soccer||11||2|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2007-08||Benfica||Portuguese Liga||11||3||||2|||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008-09||Monaco||Ligue 1||3||0|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 398||13|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 411||3||||2|||| Template:Football player statistics 4|||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5109||16|||||||| |}

Personal life

Adu dated American pop/R&B singer JoJo from May 2005 until September 2006 A Washington Post article in November 2006 reported that the couple split after one year. JoJo mentioned on American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest that she and Adu were still good friends. Adu is also sponsored by Nike Total 90. Freddy's younger brother, Fro Adu, currently plays soccer for George Mason University.

External links

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