Freddy Adu's lengthy quest for regular playing time may finally be coming to an end.
The Washington Post is reporting that Adu is on the verge of a loan move to Danish club Odense BK. The reported one-year loan being discussed would potentially provide Adu with the regularyplaying time he has been unable to find since leaving MLS two years ago.
Currently under contract to Benfica, Adu is coming off a disappointing loan spell with French club Monaco, but now appears ready to revive his career in the same league that currently boasts fellow Americans Benny Feilhaber and Michael Parkhurst among others.
The move would be a smart one that needs to happen in order to have Adu avoid wasting another year on a European bench, and is probably Adu's best chance to try make a push for a place on the U.S. World Cup roster.
What do you think of this move? Like the idea of Adu heading to Denmark? Disappointed that he won't be staying with Benfica? Will you be circling the Odense-Aarhus game on your calendar for the Feilhaber-Adu battle?
Share your thoughts below.
People need to be patient. The US National team coach needs to consider him as a True US player and stop “player hating”. Freddy would have been doing well playing for Ghana. However, poverty can make us do strange things. Freddy is better than most of the players that Bradley selects to represent the US team. The coach needs to trust and let him do his thing.
Sorry.. I was talking about ‘papa bear’ and not Joga Rooch… But as said, click my name to have a looka the the latest UEFA ranking..
To Joga Rooch and other posters in this thread who dont really have a clue of what they are talking about… Please try to actually look up the facts before posting nonsense… Unlike the other leagues in Scandinavia then the danish league starts in July, then has a long winter break from early December to early March and finish in May…
and The Danish Superliga should really not be confused with the Swedish and Norwegian leagues, which are probably at the same level as MLS or at best, slightly better, but they are also ranked far behind the Danish league..At the moment the Danish league is ranked 12, ahead of Scotland, Switzerland, Greece and Belgium in 13 to 16th place… “MLS Europe” would be Sweden as 23.. (Click my name to have a look at the latest UEFA ranking)
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Another awful move that will do nothing to develop his game. Garbra, please raise the salary cap!
This Denmark move sounds good to me. Before going to a league that suits his play, he needs to go to a league that will improve his weaknesses. That way, he’ll stand out a bit more. We all know he’s a creative player but he needs to be better tactically and improve his soccer IQ to understand what to do and the moment to do it rather than just blatantly and randomly attack. He’s basically building a portfolio while improving himself which is exactly what Charlie Davies did and what Freddy should have done a long time ago. Better late than never I suppose.
@Posted by: KBD | August 11, 2009 at 04:42 PM
Considering Goff’s inclusion in Ive’s blogroll and Goff being THE voice of soccer at the WaPo I’m thinking you are reading a bit too much into it.
@Posted by: Joga Rooch | August 11, 2009 at 09:17 AM
I hate to be ants at your picnic, but the Scandinavian schedule runs at the same time as MLS. The only way it is more ‘in sync’ is they actually don’t schedule league games on international dates.
Outside of 2-3 teams who regularly get some play in UEFA Cup/CL all 3 Scandinavian leagues are MLS Europe. It’s really a bit of a joke. PT is good but his career is really taking a step back. I hope he is able to make the most of any opportunities and try to get moving forward again. We DESPERATELY need a creative midfielder. We have nothing there at the moment and he is capable of it when he is ‘on’
He probably will.
Even though deadline has been passed regarding registering players for the two matches on august 20th and 27th, we are allowed to sign one additional player until 24h before match start.
8/20 Odense v. Genoa in Europa League. Genoa is tipped to be top 4-5 this year in Serie A. Will he play? Good luck Fredo.
I wonder if Goff and Ives have a rivalry? I’ve never seen either refer to the other on their blogs, and Ives cited this to the Post rather than Soccer Insider/Goff.
AND the danish national soccer team has been competing in the upper layers of european national soccer for many years. And has developed a lot since Denmark won the european championships in 1992.
And if you think that danish soccer is so inferior to other european leagues, check out the danish results in the european tournaments:
season 08/09:
CL – danish team AaB (Aalborg Boldklub)
AaB – Celtic (scotland) 2-1
AaB – Villareal (spain) 2-2
Celtic – AaB 0-0
Man U (england) – AaB 2-2
AaB qualified for knock out in UEFA cup
AaB – Dep. La Coruna (spain) 3-0
Dep. La Coruna – AaB 1-3
Man. City (england) – AaB 2-0
AaB – Man. City 2-0 (AaB lost on penalties)
FCK (FC Copenhagen) in UEFA cup
FCK FC Moscow 3-2
Valencia – FCK 1-1
Club Brugge – FCK 0-1
FCK – Man City 2-2
Man City – FCK 2-1
These results are from last year alone.
Odense BK has experienced the biggest development of the danish soccer teams in the past couple of years. And the club has earned a reputation as the club in which international quality prospects revitalize their careers, after having dazed into oblivion. Take for instance Djiby Fall, whose career got back on track after only one season in Odense. He now plays for Torpedo Moscow. Or Eric Djemba-Djemba, former Manchester United and Aston Villa player. He is by many regarded the best player in Denmark, after having played in Odense for only one season. Prior to that, he was kicking sand in a club in Quatar. Or Peter Utaka the brother of John Utaka from the english Premier League. Peter was bought in a Belgian second division club, initially destined for the role as striker substitute. He is now our top scorer, having scored five goals in the first six appearances this season.
So don’t fear sending Adu to Odense. We will teach him to fight for his spot in the team and for the jersey. We will strip him of his self centered behaviour. And we will develop him into the star player he was supposed to have been already.
sounds like a good move to get playing time in a decent european league. i hate benfica now!
Freddy 5′ 7″?? … no way. He’s maybe 5′ 5″ in cleats.
Didn’t Freddy & Benny have some kind of dust-up in a Nats camp?
should be interesting to see if this rivalry develops any further
It is important to remember that football is also a business. I remember on some other topic of Freddy Adu, someone brought up the fact that the reason Freddy no longer plays for Benfica is because Benfica would have to pay the MLS some several million dollar bonus for making x-amount of appearances…(I think the appearance # was 20).
I think Benfica liked what they saw in Adu (at one point), but with all the coaching changes etc that happened there, Adu was lost in the shuffle. Once the subsequent coaches (or team owners or whatever) realized they would have to shell out several million if Adu saw the pitch again, they decided to never play him again and just try to recoup the $$$ they shelled out in the first place.
@Mike Ruze
I’m not sure why you just dissed the achievements of every American in the Danish league. Tracy is essentially still in his rookie season in professional football, so scoring “only one goal” is pretty awesome. Parkhurst played a few games before the break, but this upcoming season will be his first full year with the team (and they’re off to a good start).
Califf got some quality exposure playing in the Europa league last year with Aalborg and landed a lucrative contract with Midtjylland after starting almost all of the games last year and making an excellent impression. He wouldn’t be anywhere near the national team if it wasn’t for the Superliga.
Feilhaber has so far scored on his debut, started every game, and has helped Aarhus to second place in the league. Not bad for just joining the club. White has also contributed with an assist off the bench.
As for Heath Pearce, he was one of the better left backs in Denmark, which gave him his chance in Germany, but he blew it. Sounds like exactly the type of opportunity that Freddy’s looking for.
They might have all been able to develop in MLS, but why would you when you could be making significantly more in Denmark?
I hope he works hard and earns some playing time.
Holland would do wonders for him
good move. holland would have served him better. now just get on with it and get on the field consistently and produce consistently. no excuses now.
I like the move, the danish is one of the most underrated in Europe. Hopefully he gets PT, and keeps improving
I hope he takes the job.
I am certain that we are all in agreement that if you don’t play for club…then you should not play for the USMNT. With that said I think Adu got the message. You can lump Josy…beasly…both coming out and demanding PT or a move. I dont know about the rest of you but I am getting pretty sick of big clubs buying that potential US star just to have that token American rotting on the bench. Then when they cant crack the 13 man rotation they loan them out to a club that just needs to fill 1 spot way down on their bench. In the same process the club that owns the rights to the American player actually views the loan as a way to actually yeild a profit. OUr players fail to see that side of the business. One big example is Arsenal and their spending sprees on young prospective talents. They loan them out and if something becomes of them then they iether sell them resign them. This is no way this benefits our cause here in the states. It definitely benefits their bank accounts but your skills diminish and you now suck and worst of all you lose your USMNT call-up… This is evident in the cases of a handful of our brightest prospects (johnson, beasly, adu ). You can definitely see that the more time they spend on the bench…the less bright their future seems to get. Yes, they do get great coaching as well as the best practice facilities but Unfortunately the only way to improve is to apply your skills in a match situation. From a players perspective, the possibility of playing in a top flight league and making quite a bit of money (from a U S soccer players prospective) is just too enticing.
In any case…this is a good move for Adu. In my opinion, all players thinking of crossing the pond better do things the correct way and work their way to the big leagues as opposed to being sold on a hope and a prayer for more PT. Marcus tracey, Matt taylor, Benny, davies, lichaj, cooper, torres, orosco, vidal, jamal johnson as well as other players are all doing the correct thing in starting out from a position where they are able to showcase thier skills in lower table teams…
Playing time would be great. I hope it happens!
Mike,
But does that mean that MLS is better?
Nevertheless, I agree with your comment. If Benny keeps it up he will be gone before we can remember the name of his club.
Having said all that, I still think it might be a good spot for Freddy.
Jeremiah White bounced around before landing at ARG probably had more to do with him not being good enough for those other leagues. Havent heard much talk about him being called up so he must not be that much better.
Conversely Pearce dominated that league yet sucks and is relegated to the bench in BUNDESLIGA II.
Marcus Tracey has scored exactly ONE goal and gets miniscule minutes off the bench. More hype than anything.
Califf recently lost his place on the Nats and sucked there all along no improvement there.
Parkhurst toasted early and often in the Gold Cup hard to see any improvement there either.
Jloome, you raise a good point.
In the past, he was ‘hidden’ on the wings to keep bruising defenders from clipping his tender calves and ankles.
Most Yank fans see him as an attacking mid, which raises my left eyebrow up past my receding hairline.
Freddy himself has said that his best position is the second striker. The thing is, that’s normally ‘the money’ position–where you want your best or second best ‘marquis’ player. I think this was his biggest problem at Monaco. It seemed like they were unwilling to give him the keys to their offense. And let’s face it, 90% of the time when Freddy plays, he needs the attack to flow through him– good or bad.
But there are precious few true strikers at 5’7. I can only think of Martins, Saviola, and Messi. Freddy doesn’t have their pace (or Michael Owen’s nose for the net).
Just my opinion, don’t flame too hard.
Genuine question: can someone tell me why a player of Adu’s size and apparent lack of defensive accumen isn’t just played as a striker?
Seems to me of the few times I’ve seen him, he’s been either wide or in the hole behin the strikers, but he’s so good with the ball that letting him take on defenders up front would make sense.
We need to start getting the Danish League broadcast on FSC. I would totally watch just for Benny and Freddy!
Freddy who?
all the best for freddy!! and can we please cut the guy some slack and stop acting like his career is over?? just relax and watch what happens over the next few years. freddy is immensely talented and still has time to become a truly great player.
Mmmmmmm….. Danish.
Anyone paying attention in the last few weeks can’t have missed the stories about how difficult it is to transfer out of MLS. Kenny Cooper’s dad laid out the problems for Americans trying to exit MLS.
So, even if the Danish league is inferior to MLS (and I don’t believe that it is), Freddy is in a better position to prosper outside of MLS than he’d be inside.
For all of you slagging the Danish Sugerliga please have some backup to your evidence. Saying “it sucks”, “it’s below MLS”, “it’s poor quality” just provides credence that you haven’t seen much or any of the league. Please watch the league before passing judgment. It’s a completely different league compared to MLS. It’s a league that has produced quality talent from all across the globe. No, it ain’t the “Big 5” but it’s right there with Holland, Belgium, Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia. The Superlig plays an attractive brand of football where the players who move on can adapt to their new surroundings. Serie A, Bundesliga, Premiership, and France has all seen imports from the Superliga recently.
I read a comment above that mentioned the current Yanks have not progressed. i beg to differ. Look at Jeremiah White who bounced around europe before landing at AGF. He should be in consideration for the Nats. Look at Feilhaber, he’s reborn. Marcus Tracey is improving leaps and bounds according to AaB. Califf has significantly improved his game. Parkhurt is getting over his adjustment period and I think will come on strong. It’s been a recent trend of Yanks heading there so there’s not a track record of moving to the bigger leagues. but give it time and it will happen. Pearce is the only one that has albeit with mixed results.