Freddy Adu was a Football Manager legend and had a following like Lionel Messi – I almost signed him for B… – talkSPORT

Freddy Adu was once touted as the next Pele, he signed a $500k contract at the age of 14… then almost ended up in England’s non-league.

Football Manager fans will remember just how good Adu was and it was because of the popular game that fans anticipated a special talent on the horizon.

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In penning his contract at DC United, he became the highest paid MLS player – he was 14 – and the youngest-ever professional athlete in America. Nike were quickly onto this once in a generation talent.

Two years later in 2006 he even earned a trial at Manchester United under the watchful eye of Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Freddy has done all right,” Ferguson said of the player, then 17. “He is a talented boy. He’ll go back to the US and we’ll keep a check on him. When he is 18, we will have to assess what we can do next.”

But it turned out to be Adu’s only brush with English football, though not if talkSPORT’s Jamie O’Hara had his way.

The former Tottenham midfielder was a former player and manager of the Isthmian League club and admits he was close to signing the player, who had the sort of cult following David Beckham enjoyed in America and which Lionel Messi is now used to.

“I nearly signed him at Billericay but we couldn’t get him a work permit,” O’Hara confessed on The Sports Bar. He’s still knocking about somewhere, he is still playing.”

And what a coup that would have been for the Essex club despite never living up to the high expectation placed on him. 

Now aged 35, Adu has been without a club since 2021 and despite never officially retiring from the game he now spends his time coaching kids.

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Adu enjoyed spells in the United States, Brazil, France, Portugal, Turkey, Serbia, Finland and most recently Sweden.

He did play for big teams in Europe, though, like Benfica where he played alongside Angel Di Maria, and Monaco, but says this was a turning point in him becoming a so-called journeyman.

“The one decision I made that I would done differently is when I left Benfica after one year and went on loan to Monaco [in 2008],” he told CBS Sports. That started the snowball of me having to go on loan from team to team because I wasn’t patient enough at Benfica.”

As well as acknowledging he could have been more dedicated to becoming the best, Adu cited Di Maria as someone who did remain patient in Portugal. “A new coach came in, he played and next thing you know he goes to Real Madrid,” he recalled.

“I go to Monaco and there was a power struggle between coach [Ricardo Gomes] and president – he wanted me really bad but the coach didn’t feel like I was ready.”

Things may not have gone the way Adu had envisaged for his career but he will be forever cherished as a Football Manager legend.

Despite his worldwide acclaim on the game, Adu previously admitted he received barrages of messages from fans.

“I get a lot of tweets with people calling me a Football Manager legend and I’m like ‘damn, I wish it was like that in real life'” he joked in an interview in 2014.

“I haven’t played that game, but I have a lot of friends that have and they’ve told me about it, so that’s pretty cool.”

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