If Freddy Adu is to find consistent playing time in Europe next season, it likely won't be with Aris Salonika.
While Aris departed for a Europa League qualifier on Tuesday, Adu was busy trialing for Swiss club FC Sion. The club, which finished seventh in the 10-team Swiss League last season, is looking to land Adu on loan for the entire upcoming season.
Having been deemed surplus to requirements by Aris manager Hector Cuper earlier this summer, Adu would join his fifth European club since moving across the pond in 2007 should he sign with Sion.
The American international scored once last season in five league appearances for Aris.
What do you think of Adu possibly joining FC Sion? Worried that he is being loaned out again? How would you rate his time with Aris?
Share your thoughts below.
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“I think I’ll keep defending Freddy because he is still so young, but I can’t find a positive spin in this”
Why is it an asset for a player to be young?
Because they still have time to learn their craft and develop their body and their abilities.
None of this seems to apply to Freddy.
He ain’t getting any taller and he doesn’t seem interested in working out and getting ripped. He’s still puny and slow.
He has been a first team pro for 6 years and most of his playing time came in the early part of his career.
That sounds like a veteran in decline.
He has been with many clubs and many coaches, some of them excellent,like Nowak, Cuper and Bradley ( you may think Bradley is a pinhead coach but many respected people don’t ) and has failed to impress all of them in spite of his undeniable skill.
That sounds like an inability to learn and get better.
Finally, Adu isn’t the only talented 20 year old out there. I’ll bet most of them are cheaper and have smaller heads.
You don’t get unlimited chances in this game; once that ill-advised Befica contract is up Adu’s goose in Europe isporbably cooked, if he doesn’t suddenly have an extreme makeover. And in a year or two (whenever that contract is up) the MLS will be alot more compeititve and I wouldn’t be so sure Freddy can get a club back home. Especially for his salary bracket.
“we need creative midfielders on the U.S. National Team”
Yes we do. But Freddy ain’t it. He has skill and talent but a real creative midfielder is above all else intelligent with the ball and makes his teammates better.
For lack of a better way to put it, for the most part Adu is stupid with the ball and makes a lot of dumb decisions. And with his constant clashing with the coaches, he ain’t gonna get better in that department.
The US can do better. Time to move on.
The US would be wise to spend more effort in luring Najar than investing any time in Adu, yesterday’s news.
Yeah, great,
But what happens when his Benfica contract runs out and he has to pay off his agents and hangers on. And no one is lining up to give him another max contract.
If he has been smart( right) One would assume he has been saving for a rainy day for the last 6 years. If not then, look out.
How do you think being, what, 23-24 and washed up with no marketable skills must be like?
Can you say Vietnam league?
Hope he does well because we need creative midfielders on the U.S. National Team. Lets face it without Donovan we aint nothing. Also very interested in Andy Najar coming to the USMNT.
You forgot:
Freddy shouldn’t listen to his handlers
Freddy is lazy
Freddy is neither a forward nor a mid
Cheese gives Freddy gas
I don’t understand the calls for Adu to come back to MLS for playing time. Who would he play for? If you don’t recall, he was consistently terrible in MLS (I’m an RSL fan, I saw it first hand) and that was much closer to his (so far) peak as a player. Yeah, he’d probably get a contract based on name recognition, but I don’t think he’d start for anyone right now, short of possibly DCU.
Yes, neither have lived up to the unrealistic expectations created by epic media hype.
the best thing for Adu would be to come to MLS for two seasons.
he needs to get some confidence and playing time. if i was him i would take a pay cut and try to go to a team like NY. Imagine playing behind Angel and Henry? just imagine the number of assists and goals. his stats would be inflated. Not only will euro teams be interested in him but he will be back in the mix for team USA.
Don’t say Freddy, Freddy, Freddy in the mirror. Urban legend has it that the ghost of Freddy’s junior WC past will come out of the mirror and give you a chilena (bicycle kick) to the head.
2 more important words: Money and feasibility.
As to the feasibility part: I don’t pretend to be an expert on loan deals, but I’m pretty sure Aris agreed to pay the bulk of Adu’s wages for the upcoming season. Now they want no part of him and are trying to dump as much of his salary on someone else as they can. If he were to be loaned to an MLS side, I don’t see anyway around them having to use a DP slot on Freddy since he’s making significantly more than $300K right now. Is that really feasible for most MLS squads? Is there a team out there willing to use a DP slot on a guy who hasn’t consistently played in 3 years, has some serious limitations to his game and comes with more baggage than a Southwest flight?
In terms of money, unless something huge changes in this kid over the next few years, he’s looking at the tail end of what is realistically his last big contract. No way does he tear that up so he can come play in MLS this year and make $200, $300K. He’d be leaving hundreds of thousands, if not more, on the table to come back to MLS right now.
All that said, if he doesn’t catch on by the end of his deal, MLS is absolutely the right, and potentially only move for him.
-1000
and how many times have you said the same thing over the years?
RSL, Benfica, Monaco, Belensenses, Aris and now Sion
the best thing for Freddy is for fans to give up on him… let the expectations reset, stop the worship of a nobody and let him actually earn the adulation
can someone compare the number of Tweets posted by Freddy to minutes played in professional soccer? I’m guessing he tweets 5x for every minute played…
seriously, I am glad to see all the Freddy defndrs finally capitulating. You can recycle the coach hates him, this is a fresh start, this team/league sucks so he should get minutes excuses only so many times…
The Swiss league? I am calling it now… Tashkent is the next stop on Freddy Adu’s soccer journey, unless China, like Stephon Marbury. Maybe Freddy can be league MVP in China, though again he may ride the pine and get loaned out to a Vietnamese team….
So their recent record counts for nothing?
Is this the last year on the Benfica contract? That means he would be a free agent next summer. So he should just collect $$$ for 1 more season. No hurry as the next world cup is 4 years away. My advice: collect the money. Nobody should tear up a $$$ contract with just a year to go.
20 years old, wealthy, and earning money playing soccer in Switzerland. I know some of you are disappointed with him, critical, but read that first sentence again. Pretty fantastic life if you think about it objectively.
Haha, Freddy Adu “birthers.”
Kenny Cooper is unhappy with Freddy Adu?
He’s almost 31, he should retire.
Now starting for the Long Island Rough Riders..Freddy Adu!
Freddy make me rember one player from my country (chile) he looks very good when he was young 2002-2003 but diciplinare problems make him to lost the way, untill 2009 when he played notable in serie b and now he will play in seria a.
you can read all the story here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio_Pinilla
but i think that the problem is not where he plays (mls or europe) i think is in his head. (sry for the english)
The most I can remember him doing is some nice moves in drawing a PK versus Juventus a few years ago. He has never done….anything really. Until he does something he’s not in my MNT convo’s. Unless he’s the best player in the Swiss league…..not in my MNT convo. Simple.
I’ll try to cover all the talking points here:
– Freddy’s still young
– Freddy’s too old
– Swiss league is still a step up from MLS
– The Swiss league? What next?
– He just needs to play
– 300K Twitter followers can’t be wrong
– Freddy should have started in the World Cup
– Freddy shouldn’t be near the national team
What am I missing?
Justin Mapp is (at least) a part time starter in MLS. Freddy HAS to be better than that.
I love the Galaxy but 4-1 is 4-1
Another reason for loaning players out is to help them develop. Nothing is better for the development of a player than getting consistent game time experiance.
Very well said.
2 words: e-go
Adu would get some minutes for DCU now but he wouldn’t start–it would actually be a terrible situation for him.
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1. Onalfo is playing a system with 2 central mids who are expected to defend. That’s not Adu–can’t come close to playing that role. Plus, the team’s DP Branko Boskovic is a central midfielder. So unless you’re saying that Adu is going to play left outside midfield and track back on defense and run all match, it doesn’t look like he’d start in midfield for DCU.
2. He might beat out Pablo Hernandez (the Argentine who plays in Uruguay who’s on loan)–that’s the primary competition at withdrawn forward. And then that assumes that he’s going to be ahead of Jaime Moreno as the withdrawn forward on the bench. Moreno may be old, slow and in his last season but Adu isn’t exactly better in the air, significantly faster, in better shape and definitely doesn’t have the feel for the match that Moreno has. Trust me, I’m not arguing that DCU’s forwards are so impressive, only that Adu just doesn’t have a lot of positional options. And especially in a physical league like MLS in the summer heat, your outside mids need to be able to defend and need to be able to run. So he’s really only looking at 2 positions: withdrawn forward and A-mid. And on a team like DCU that doesn’t play with an A-mid (unless your example of an A-mid is Michael Bradley), that basically means a guy (Adu) with a couple of years of rust is going to come in and play ahead of guys who are in mid-season and in some cases have better stats than him.
For those who figure that he’d come into MLS and automatically start, here’s a small (though not perfect litmus test): he didn’t get an invite to the USNT, wasn’t even really a consideration the last couple of months. But guys who were NOT starting for their clubs (Gomez, Findley) got invites and made the team (I’m leaving off Guzan and some of the guys who play overseas–unique situations). Adu not only isn’t in the top 3 Euro leagues and not starting, b/c some of those leagues don’t have reserves, he’s not even getting much in the way of practice games.
Again, not trying to bash Adu–he’s young and got mad skills in some areas. But this isn’t a case of he couldn’t cut it at Real Madrid so he’s coming home to get minutes at any one of the 5 or 6 positions on the field he can play. He needs to go to a team with a strong coach, a good support system and a system that’s already in-place, a strong supporting cast, that plays a pure A-mid (ideally a 5-man midfield) or needs a withdrawn forward. Unless you figure he’s coming to MLS to be on the bench and be someone’s 12th or 13th or 14th player for the near future, there aren’t a lot of good options.
Freddy seems to play well in tournament environments or one off friendlies. The U20 WCs, V Spain a few years back, 08 Olympics.
My impression is that he doesn’t have the mental stamina and strength yet to show it in a Club season. He’s still immature and not yet the real professional he needs to be.
Adu could easily start for several MLS teams, including dear old (and now horrible) DC United. And that’s what he should do–come back here. He’d get playing time and some support. This Europe adventure is really spiraling down for him, and he’s not getting any better, apparently.
This is a sound and reasonable post. Add the post above regarding supposed problems due to unprofessional acts and it adds up.
Add that it entirely possible (without any malice) that he is really 1 or 2 years older than listed.
Adu is still young and clearly talented. USMNT or not. He should be a solid contributor to some team by now. Maybe he’ll ‘mature’ as Donovan references in the next few years.
But I’m really beginning to think that once his current contract is over it will be sink or swim time and this saga can really move to the next step. In the meantime, Freddy is getting paid, still believes his own hype and isn’t motivated to prove otherwise. Likewise teams are motivated to move him along if it doesnt work out.
Let’s start calling him “Freddy A-don’t”
1. I can’t believe the fools who insist the reason this has played out the way it has is b/c Adu is actually older (28 or whatever). If Adu was OLDER he’d have had more success. His biggest issues are mental as a player, his ability to keep his head in the game and think.
2. Research done with U-17 teams shows that the vast majority of U-17 WC players don’t go one to become good, let alone star professionals. Maybe Adu is one of those cases. He’s still young but…signs aren’t promising.
3. Those people who insist that all he needs is playing time are naive. Here’s the deal with Adu:
–yes, he’s rusty and probably not in game-shape and that comes from not playing. But…
–he’s always been a player who has trouble moving off the ball, showing for the ball, reading the game, supporting defensively (I don’t mean tackling or winning balls, I just mean “being a teammate who at least reads the attack and tracks back or follows a runner on a corner kick, filling space to discourage a pass), having any kind of workrate. The two positions in the pro game he has a reasonable chance of playing due to his height and lack of real speed and other game issues are A-mid and withdrawn forward. Both of those positions (especially A-mid) require someone who can move off the ball, show for the ball, read the game and know when to be aggressive pushing forward and when to hold the ball or play it back–in short they’re about quick decisions that dictate how the team plays and how balls are distributed and to whom. Adu has always had a beautiful touch on the ball and is actually quite unselfish. But his ability to succeed at those two positions is weak right now in a serious pro league. So yes, he needs to start getting minutes–that will build up his confidence, build up his conditioning and get him sharper skill-wise. But that doesn’t automatically build his other skills and fix those other holes in his game. And that doesn’t automatically happen by playing in games. So just getting PT won’t cut it.
3. For those who say it’s time to come back to MLS, well, I’ll say this: I’m not sure which MLS teams he’d start for. Again, he’s got tremendous technical ability in some areas. But he’s got gaping holes in other parts of his game that limit your ability to put him on the field as a wingback or outside mid or as part of a 433 with an outside attacker role.
PS: where are all those posters who used to say that Nowak was just jealous of Adu (when he was at DCU) which is why he didn’t start all the time or would be benched now and then, or that Adu wasn’t impressing in MLS bc the skill level was so low–and when he moved overseas (and was surrounded by better technical ability) we’d seem his flourish?
I love the Adu birther movement conspirators. I guess he and Obama have something in common…
I agree completely. At this point, Adu should look to be loaned back to the MLS for a season or two in order to resurrect his career.
This really blows. I’ve defended Adu all this time. But it looks like there is just something he doesn’t get. Maybe he doesn’t train well. We’ve seen him at his best, and when he is playing like that, he’s great. Yes, I said great. But, for yet another coach to find him a surplus, it just doesn’t add up. Man up Freddy. Beg Norwalk for a spot at Philly. Shut up. Train hard. And earn in through MLS first.
It is time to real about this. There IS INDEED something problematic and it is me (Freddy’s Feet)… Even though we are freakishly small, we still can kick and pass and run. The problem, apparently, is somewhere else (perhaps between the ears) because none of his managers have taken a liking to him…
Maybe Freddy will be honest with himself this time….
Freddy’s Feet say: we are freakishly small.
Freddy Adu in Europe = EPIC FAIL.
A good reason a lot of younger players (not all, but most) should season themselves in MLS early in their careers. They will have more opportunity to develop and get minutes here rather than pine away on a bench on a European club.
Of course, there are exceptions, just depends on the player. Freddy, IMO, went too early.
What the hell do you have against DC United???
That’s not a fair comparison, considering both the Galaxy and the Euro squads were playing with B+ sides, at best.
(And in the Galaxy’s case, having to play four games (plus an all-star for some) in a little over a week’s time. PRI didn’t seem to have that scheduling consideration when they took the field…)
I highly doubt this. I’m sure at this point he’s good enough to start or at least get solid minutes on a fair number of teams in MLS, and on top of that, he’s easily one of the most known names in US soccer. Even though he’s not 14 anymore, he’s going to sell some tickets.
Assuming DC wins the allocation lottery with MLS…
Come back to DC United, Freddy!
Neither do I. Adu has been groomed to think that Europe is the ultimate destination of a soccer star… that going anywhere else is an embarrassment and a disgrace.
Adu should talk to another American phenom who was in this same situation half a decade ago. That kid made the right choice, though, coming back to MLS, taking the thump to his pride, and is now on the wishlist of many top-tier teams in across Europe.
Freddy… give Landon Donovan a call just as soon as you can. The guy might have some good advice for ya.
Adu may have underachieved significantly since moving abroad but there’s no way with his skill set that he should be riding the bench this time around.
Hope he gets his head screwed on tight and we see him in a couple seasons fully refreshed. Otherwise, he’ll be lucky to get accepted back into MLS.
Better than riding the pine.
With all due respect to Gary Coleman, I hope Gary Coleman II finds a nice, quiet life at a small club somewhere and we never have to hear about him again. He simply is not as good as everyone thought, did not have the spirit or passion to be as good as he could be, or everyone at every club that signed him must have something against him.
Since it’s not the latter, that leaves just the first two. And, based on his Tweets, it’s clear he’s trying. So, that just leaves the first option. He’s just not that good.
He doesn’t have the speed, strength, sense of team and community, and passion to succeed at a high level.
By the looks of this picture, he better make a move fast before Predator gets him.