I’m Officially Sick of Freddy Adu

February 8th, 2006 | by: WC Bob | Comments Off

Have you heard that Freddy Adu might be headed to Chelsea? Of course you have. If you are remotely interested in American soccer you have been inundated with Freddy coverage for the last two (or has it been twenty?) years. The next big thing has been the big thing for seemingly a lifetime now. In an entirely selfish way I kind of hope Adu ends up at Chelsea where he can languish on the reserve team for a few years and we can all get a reprieve from hearing about him.

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Adu. He seems like a nice enough kid – if he is indeed the age he claims to be. He might even turn out to be a nice player. But at this point the hype is far outpacing the talent and that is why today, February 8, 2006, I am officially divorcing myself from Freddy Adu.

The funny thing is while all the attention has been focused on the Yanks’ Ghana-born “sensation,” a number of talented youngsters have emerged from the United States and are actually contributing nicely to teams in Major League Soccer and in Europe. Their every move hasn’t been documented by the mainstream media and their faces haven’t been plastered on billboards, but their talent is the future of soccer in the States. In a way that might even be benefiting from Freddymania. The pressure to save the sport in a country that doesn’t need the sport to be saved in the first place is not on their shoulders.

So today, I move on. I am no longer in love with your talent Freddy. I no longer swoon at your potential. I no longer care whether you start or not for DC United and I no longer will concern myself with where in Europe you will end up playing. I am filing for divorce from you Freddy on grounds of irreconcilable differences between the hype and the reality. Not matter how good you may become, you will never live up to the hype and for this reason alone I will no longer be part of the hype.