The dream scenario for Freddy Adu (and, subsequently, the U.S. Soccer Federation) is on the verge of happening. Football media outlets are reporting that Manchester United, at the request of Sir Alex Ferguson, are bringing in the youngster for a two week training period. If all works out, and the Ghanian-born American impresses, then Man U. will negotioate with the MLS to land Freddy during the January transfer window. There are still quite a lot of ifs in this equation, but American saw-ker might finally have just found it's savior. I mean, cmon, Landon Donovan and Taylor Twellman and Brian Ching are all great--in the contexts of the still-diluted talent pool of Major League Soccer. Donovan had a year in Germany and couldnt break through a Bundesliga first team, and while I'm not saying Freddy Adu will be making United's starting 11 anytime soon, it atleast indicates a step up in terms of quality.
Regardless, there's no way Freddy returns to DC United. He and coach Peter Novak outright hate each other, and Freddy has been dreaming of a move to Europe since his days at the IMG academy in Florida. What's really unfortunate about all this is the MLS owns the right for Freddy Adu, just like they do every other MLS player. Therefore they have 100% control over whether or not Freddy hops the pond and plays for Manchester United. Anyone who knows anything about the MLS knows that Freddy is their highest payed player and their biggest cash crop. So what's going to happen when United throw a few million on the table? If the MLS brass know what's good for them, while also considering what's good for the U.S. Soccer Federation, they give Freddy his walking papers and pocket a nice sum of cheese.
For more of this story visit the good lads at soccernet.com
10 comments:
This story was first broke by The Washington Post, and DC United are insisting this is not a tryout, merely an off-season training spot. I see why DC United wouldn't want to let go of their golden boy, but would they say no a likely overpriced bid by ManU? And what if another club like, oh I dunno, Chelsea got involved. Then we have a good old fashioned bidding war. (See Jon Obi Mikel.)
I hate to be drinking the hater-ade again but...
1. Sir Alex Ferguson has NOT sanctioned this. According to football365.com, Ferguson was not consulted when ManYoo made this decision. So Freddy is going to have to impress Sir Alex before anything happens. Freddy is going to have to play at his 110% best to impress the great one.
2. Freddy Adu is not the highest paid MLS player. That honor would go to Juan Francisco Palencia of Chivas USA 1.4 million guaranteed. Freddy makes 550K guaranteed. Freddy Adu isn't even in the top 5 in salary (Eddie Pope makes a higher base salary than Freddy Adu).
But I do concede that you are right about the pit bull...
I dont keep up with fake-ass Mexican MLS teams, first of all. Second of all Freddy makes the most loot in MLS cause he's signed with Nike (1 mil per) and Sierra Mist. As far as Sir Alex goes, if he doesn't see a place for Freddy in his youth system at the very least, then maybe he needs to stengthen his eyeglass prescription or buy a noose. I agree with you in that we're a long way away from seeing ADU red devil's jerseys, but lest not forget: this is the same team that brought J S Park over for the sole reason of selling jerseys in Asia. Who's to say that doesnt happen twice?
Show me the Lyon jersey in your closet! Sambo I've poured over the blog to find you supposedly riding this dark horse, being Lyon. Diarra's move to Real Madrid hasn't hurt the team. We could bicker about this in myriad ways, at length. However more pressing terms are at hand. Adu's headlines came up my Stevie G. widget two days ago. Speculations and hater-ade aside, I just waited for the shooting gallery to begin
I admitted that the Diarra move hasn't hurt them (see post "Reaction: Champions league days 1 and 2". Also... they don't sell Lyon jerseys on ebay or I would be first in Line to buy one. Also, Stephen, Outside sponsorships have nothing to do with how much money you make for playing the game (which is, after all, why Mr. Adu has the sponsorships in the first place). The book has yet to be closed on Freddy Adu, so we will see how the situation turns out.
Oh and by the way, United have more pressing issues and better players to chase than Freddy Adu, there I said it.
Lest not forget who owns Man U--An American who knows little about footy. Lest also not forget that ManUs main objective (right behind winning trophies) is selling shirts and making money. Just don't act suprised when you see Adu Man U jerseys all over NikeTown and Easybay catalogs in a few months. Nike was already making Adu national team jerseys before he even had a DC United kit. At this point it's not even about Adu the player, it's about Adu the brand. Nike will make this happen--Freddy can't go anywhere else (although I've heard rumblings about Celtic) because they're all adidas.
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