Freddy Adu will be staying in Portugal for the upcoming European season, but it looks like he won't be spending it with Benfica.
According to Portuguese website Abola, Adu is heading on loan to Belenenses. Adu didn't figure into Benfica's plans after returning from an unsuccessful loan spell with French club Monaco and a loan move always looked like a certainty for the 20-year old, especially with the arrivals of highly-regarded Brazilian youngsters Ramires and Keirrison.
(UPDATE-Belenenses has confirmed the deal, a one-year loan move for Adu.)
Is the loan a good move for Adu? If he still harbors goals of eventually staying with Benfica then the loan makes sense because he will now have his chance to compete in the Portuguese Liga and show whether he can compete and excel on that level. Having to move to some other country on loan might not have been the best situation for a young player, and the reality is there just weren't clubs in smaller leagues willing to pay Adu's hefty salary.
Belenenses currently sits seventh in the Portuguese First Division after three matches. Adu won't have to wait long to see his old club as Belenenses faces Benfica in the first match after the international fixture break, on Sept. 13.
What do you think about Adu staying in Portugal? Like the move? Think he should have left Portugal?
Share your thoughts below.
Let me elaborate on my “Adu is a bust” comment. In the highly competetive world of European football, a 20 year old is not a kid. A 20 year old should be playing close to his full potential with some room for improvement to peak at 25.
Posted by: John | August 31, 2009 at 05:08 PM
Which is why anytime a 19 year old comes on in the Premiership (Altidore, Macheda, etc.) they’re referred to as a seasoned professional and not an exciting young player with potential. Oh wait…
“I don’t know – I always thought Claudio was kind of overrated. … but he also often shut down under heavy ball pressure. A guy like Feilhaber does everything Claudio could, though without his workrate. MB probably has a bigger upside and Holden might have that kind of ability as well. Reyna was a nice player, but I don’t feel like he left some kind of gaping hole- Yossarian”
Yossarian-Look up Reyna’s complete record sometime. With all due respect to Benny, an in-form, healthy Reyna was twice the player Benny is. Benny seems to finally be on track but he has a way to go before he can match up to Reyna and JOB. And those two would make great use of Davies and Jozy. None of the current US midfield players quite matches Reyna’s all around excellence.
Freddy Adu seems like a nice kid but be honest he’s an american Gio dos Santos there’s nothing there to back up the hype.
John,Riquelme is not a euro failure he was huge at villareal…..he took a city with a population of 40,000 to the champions semi final.
Adu needed to go somewhere as soon as possible….He just badly needs to get his minutes on the pitch and everything hopefully will fall into place after that….Hopefully he can find success and make our national team pool deeper maybe as as a supersub….Good luck Freddy!
GO USA,
I don’t know – I always thought Claudio was kind of overrated. If not overrated, he was certainly never the slick passing, run-at-defenders type of #10. He unquestionably had a couple huge games in our big WC run, but he also often shut down under heavy ball pressure. A guy like Feilhaber does everything Claudio could, though without his workrate. MB probably has a bigger upside and Holden might have that kind of ability as well. Reyna was a nice player, but I don’t feel like he left some kind of gaping hole.
Posted by: Yossarian | August 31, 2009 at 03:12 PM
You make good points with Benny ( he’s good with the ball) and the other stuff but when I see a game like the Mexico one, I can’t help but think we needed a solid midfielder who could hold the ball for us when we needed too.
Let me elaborate on my “Adu is a bust” comment. In the highly competetive world of European football, a 20 year old is not a kid. A 20 year old should be playing close to his full potential with some room for improvement to peak at 25. There’s thousands of kids from Europe, Africa, and South America fighting their way through the ranks and European scouts can spot talent at an early age. With soo much competetion, Clubs aren’t going to wait for a 20 year old to develop. He is either ready or not. Its that simple. Why do you think Benfica’s been shoping Adu all this time with no takers while clubs were lining up to sign Altidore? They already wrote him off as a lost cause and are trying to get as much money back as they can. If I where him I would rather be a great player in MLS than a mediocre player in Europe. As far as Donovon would be a bust according to my reasoning, I think non biased people would agree that he has struck out all three trys in Europe. Some players lack that mental component that makes them succeed overseas. Don’t get me wrong, Donovon is a great player but not everyone can play in Europe. I can mention Riquelme as an example of great players who have been European failures. Its not for everybody no matter how much talent you have.
write adu off? childish musing…however I don’t see him making a large impact this WC cycle. I think he will/could be a great player for us in the future. Now, however, I like a Bradley, Edu, Clark, Jones midfield.
“American soccer fans with democrat leanings, Shocking! Shocking I tell you!”
Is this true? Why? Not with this commenter.
fair enough
Yeah, what Jorge said.
MVK,
Personally, I don’t care about the Sarah comment and agree with you on the untruths. Just the kid comment was not appropriate.
That’s all.
note:
my comment had no political direction, only mentioned a political figure that likes kick up things related to “Adu is 26” and had the same name as the poster… and the kid is mentally handicapped and it pulled into the joke pointing to kicking up un-truths, apologizes if you take offense to the word “retard”
I am so tired of people calling Freddy “26”…if he was 26 years old he would not be on Twitter all the time or dating girls like 18 yr old Jojo two years ago… let the kid learn lessons… this is a great chance to show he still has youthful talent… Getting to stay where he knows…smaller adjustment period and ability to get into a squad immediately because Belenesses is not chock full of talent… (nor money, which makes me suspect Benefica is paying some of this wages still) Freddy in good shape and form can play the beautiful game and will show that soon…
RM07, Sarah, etc = Trolls. I think they’ve been banned from political blogs and have no place else to go.
I have no expectation of him playing for this team either, so if he does get minutes, it’ll be a nice surprise.
Let me guess…you want to see a birth certificate too, huh?
Posted by: Kosh | August 31, 2009 at 01:09 PM
HAHAHA. The original “birthers” were the ones dogging Freddy Adu back in 2005.
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American soccer fans with democrat leanings, Shocking! Shocking I tell you!
No wonder this great sport can’t catch on in the main stream……………
Anyone noticed this is the same team that Nick Sakiewicz played for??
“Portuguese league is the 8th best league in Europe behind the Russian and Dutch.”
The Brazil and Argentian leagues are miles ahead of Russia and Holland!
Russian? The league is awful.
I have been disappointed at Adu’s progress, but I am not ready to write him off. He is not ready for the USMNT yet, but he still has time to make it happen. As a USMNT supporter, I hope he does because we need a guy with his potential talent. I can remember seeing him with the U-20s and he was the only guy we have ever had who made me stand up when he started to run with the ball. He was also the only guy who the other teams were afraid of and game planned for. If he puts his head down and does the work, he will return to the USMNT.
Adu left MLS thinking he was the best thing since sliced bread, maybe a couple of years sitting on the bench has humbled him a bit. There’s no doubt he has the talent and potential to become a great footballer, hopefully he has a good year with Belenenses and finds his form.
Will he play?
MVK –
All is good in love and war, but the quip about the kid – that was below the belt. Not cool.
Now back to the football.
Adu has rightly been left off the USMNT of late, but people who write off a 20 year old are ridiculous. The guy obviously has USMNT level talent, anyone who says otherwise didn’t see his play during the U20 world cup (in which he tore up a Brazilian team that had about fifteen guys now playing first division European soccer). I’m not sure how he fits into Bradley’s desired style of play, but I certainly believe that he could develop into a player who could start in the mid-tier of European soccer, like most of the other USMNT starters.
Thanks. green. I stand corrected. Great link to follow everything Freddy now…
http://www.portugoal.net/index.php/clubs/belenenses/belenenses-news
As long as he plays.
this is more good news. with davies, altidore, and now probably adu getting pt in europe, things are steadily falling into place for the u.s. to have strong showings in the next couple world cups.
if you can read portuguese, you’ll see that the portuguese fans have a lot of appreciation for freddy’s talent and potential:
http://www.abola.pt/nnh/comentarios.aspx?id=174860
GO USA,
I don’t know – I always thought Claudio was kind of overrated. If not overrated, he was certainly never the slick passing, run-at-defenders type of #10. He unquestionably had a couple huge games in our big WC run, but he also often shut down under heavy ball pressure. A guy like Feilhaber does everything Claudio could, though without his workrate. MB probably has a bigger upside and Holden might have that kind of ability as well. Reyna was a nice player, but I don’t feel like he left some kind of gaping hole.
This is interesting:
Gudjohnsen from Barcelona set for Monaco
http://tinyurl.com/l8a6fv
hopefully he gets playing time
looking at their wiki real quick, beleneses has more MF’s than NYRB’s have CB’s
Hope he gets some PT and gets a chance to shine. We need Adu to step up so USMNT can upgrade their midfield with real talent and experience. Claudio Reyna has yet to be replaced.
Posted by: Ben | August 31, 2009 at 12:32 PM
I agree we still haven’t found a replacement for Captain America. Hopefully Adu comes back to his old self where he was giving problems to spain and argentina. We really have been missing that solid type of player that Reyna was ever since he retired.
yes, this is great, now lets just hope that he plays and shows what he is capable of. Also it would be freaken awesome if he terrorizes Benfica when they play against each other.
It’s all about playing time. I hope he gets it.
I think its pretty funny that there are folks willing to write off a 20 yr old kid as a bust in europe…abviously they are either trying to get the ADU backers pissed…or are big-time haters.
The fact of the matter is that he was producing in the 20-15 min he was getting per game back playing for the coach that brought him in. His coach was replaced and stuff happens we see it happen in every league in the world. He will get his oportunities to impress. Once he plays significant minutes there will be a team that will buy out the contract for his services… He just turned 20 folks.
Great move for Adu…He will still be playing in the Portuguese League which will help him even more when he returns to Benfica (Hopefully)
Forca Adu!
“And you can’t play against the team that loaned you out.
Sorry, guys.”
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Sorry. . . Portugal has no such rule, unless written into an individual loan deal.
According to some folks actually in Portugal, he can play against Benfica.
Also, sounds like the coach wants him, so he should get time.
I believe Belenenses was the last team other than the big three (Benfica, Porto, Sporting) to win the Portuguese League. That was in 1948.
he desperately needs to get in shape. he looked slow and a bit overweight at the gold cup. he loves to talk about how hard he works in practice, but it sure doesn’t seem like he is fit. he should stop the tweeting and let his feet do the talking.
Jorge- It’s OK to mock people’s disabled kids if they’re Republicans. Well, gotta run and worship St. Teddy.
Dman – 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, unless of course you think he is tall and fast
Posted by: Scroto Baggins | August 31, 2009 at 01:52 PM
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haha, I’d say he’s middle of the pack speed. Okay I give the small. Lazy, okay okay maybe just a little.
Don’t get me wrong i don’t think he should be even sniffing the USMNT right now unless he has some sort of blow out season out of nowhere. Just kind of shocked someone would think he’s 26 and think his career is finshed.
I mean think of the next 2 WC cycles he’ll be 25 and 29 those are prime ages (by US standards) during the WC.
Freddy is 20 and playing for a mid-table club in a second tier European league. One of the USMNTers played for a similar club called La Louviere when he was 21. That guy is doing pretty well now. Freddy has every chance to do the same. I think he needs to set his sights more rationally – he’s not going win the Ballon d’Or this year – and he appears to need some more capable handlers.
dman- obama’s new blog czar
Dman – 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, unless of course you think he is tall and fast
seriously, the guy is slow, small and lazy everywhere he goes.
Posted by: sarah | August 31, 2009 at 01:46 PM
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Seriously, Kindly leave. You’ve lost your cred
MVK, normally i hate politics being brought up in a sports conversation, but that was frickin hilarious. kudos, as they say way too much in the pac nw.
this is great for freddy, it means that if he has success (which i have faith in) he will have a shot of actually making something out of himself at benfica.
seriously, the guy is slow, small and lazy everywhere he goes.
Never has one man playing so little meant so much to so many.
“26”… is that you Sarah Palin? Bob Bradley is going after your grandma and retarded kid as well, get your tin foil hat ready..
Posted by: MVK | August 31, 2009 at 01:18 PM
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MVK,
Hey, I am no fan of Sarah Palin. In fact, I can’t stand the woman or her politics for that matter but let us leave her kid out of this. Please.
he’ll have more of a chance to play than if he stayed at Benfica, but I still doubt he will play a lot!
One of his best games in late 2007 with Benfica was vs Beleneses……
His best play that game…..
gamehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prh3b8VSWkY……
Posted by: harry | August 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM
awesome awesome awesome clip
Let me guess…you want to see a birth certificate too, huh?
Posted by: Kosh | August 31, 2009 at 01:09 PM
hahaha, football has birthers now too!