November 18 – Much Adu About Freddy

ANYONE who’s played Championship Manager in it’s various incarnations over the last five or six years will know all about today’s star of OTFD. One of the first things seasoned Champ Man fans would do is sign up the American wunderkind Freddy Adu, as he’d soon become one of the all-time greats. Perhaps Fergie’s a secret gaming addict, because today in 2006 he signed up Freddy for a two week trial at Manchester United.

It’s not like our friends over the pond to over-hype anyone or anything, but in the case Adu they outdid themselves. In 2004 the fourteen year-old Adu became the youngest American professional sportsman (or should that be sportsboy?) for a hundred years when he signed with DC United. This was all a long way from the Ghanaian port city of Tema, where Adu and his family left when he was eight after they won the Green Card Lottery and became US citizens.

He was rumoured to be the highest paid player in the MLS and a big fat contract from Nike meant that he outshone all his friends in the pocket money stakes.

By the time that Sir Alex got round to having a look at Adu he’d managed to represent the USA in a plethora of international youth tournaments where he impressed and the big money leagues in Europe came-a-calling. Nothing came of the trial at Old Trafford, but Adu responded by signing for the most European sounding club in MLS, Real Salt Lake.

Freddy has since made it into Europe after he became a £1m signing for Benfica in the summer, where he’s been forging a reputation of supersub extraordinaire, coming off the bench to score a number of important late goals.

Only time will tell if Adu reaches the peaks that the makers of Champ Man predicted for him, but as you can see by the footage below, he’s going about it the right way. We don’t think he’ll score as many goals as tomorrow’s subject though, so click yourself stupid this way in twenty four hours time.