More U-20 Transfer Gossip/News

Today, through a story put out by the Salt Lake Tribune, we learned that Freddy Adu to Benfica may be closer to happenning then some of us thought. It seems Adu’s agent requested some extra days off for Freddy from Salt Lake so he could presumably work out his European transfer. The story says that the move could come “within days”.

I guess Benfica has, or seriously plans on, upping that original offer of 2.5 million if a deal is as close as it sounds. I just hope MLS does not play too much hardball and end up having Adu unecessarily stick around for another year where he could be developing in Lisbon.

What do you all think of the move? I don’t know much about Benfica, but I do know that their stadium, Estadio da Luz, is my favorite in fifa 07 (try the “weather” setting; magical). I have heard mixed opinions on the Portugese league but for the most part people seem to think Adu would fit in well and perhaps get some run.

The second interesting tidbit today was a story linking Michael Bradley to Celtic. That is four yanks they have been linked to recentley if you have not been counting…not including John Wolyniec.

I am a big fan of this move if there is any merit to this report (probably not since they thought the senior Bradley’s first name was Bill). I would love to see Bradley playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world and maybe getting some Champions League experience in the future. He deffinatley fits their style of play.

What really appeals to me about this move is the fact that it would be a great reason to buy one of those sick green hooped Celtic kits. I need one of those, and having Bradley on the back would make it sick.

The other cool part is that it would put Bradley on the same club team as Artur Boruc (Celtic’s keeper), who are both members of something my cousin and I call the XI of Pain. It is basically a collection of the most hard ass, bone breaking, nut stomping players there are in the world. There are many different variations, here is one:

Wayne Rooney - Jan Koller

Daniele De Rossi - Michael Essien - Michael Bradley - Rino Gattuso

Dema Kovalenko

Tal Ben Haim - John Terry - Ogouchi Onyweu

Artur Boruc

I mean, how could you not want young Bradley on a team with a keeper who was charged with an official breach of peace?

By the way if you have your own XI of Pain, post it in the comments.