Mike Woitalla of Soccer America has written a piece on Freddy Adu, the one-time future prodigy of American soccer who now cannot get a look by mid-table Swiss Super League side FC Sion. The article will draw attention because it's Freddy, because of the hype surrounding his arrival at age 14, and because of his failure to live up to that hype in the USA or Europe. The article falls short when Woitalla attempts to explain the reasons for Adu's fall from the soccer spotlight. Yes, he hasn't lived up to expectations, but did he deserve those expectations? Were there too many advisors and hangers-on trying to get in his ear? Ball-tricks aside, was he even that good? Most worryingly for the state of USA soccer development, would he have matured as a player if he ended up playing for Ghana, or for one of the European countries (say, Germany)?
I don't pretend to know the answers to those questions myself, but I hope that the directors of Major League Soccer and the various youth development programs in the USA are formulating answers to them. As for Freddy, he may have the physical and technical tools to be a successful professional, but he will only get there through intense disciplined work. It is time for him to decide if he wants to become that successful professional.
(The bigger question is where there exist predictors of future professional success in the play of youth players. The answer is definitely a topic for my other website.)
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