Photo by Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports
By RYAN TOLMICH
Freddy Adu’s professional career has taken the former prodigy all over the world, and it appears that the 25-year-old’s next stop will be Sweden.
Goal USA is reporting that Adu is nearing a move to an unnamed Swedish first-division side after two weeks of discussions. The move is reportedly “imminent” and could be announced as soon as next week.
The midfielder would be far from the first American to play in Sweden’s Allsvenskan, as the league has housed a slew of U.S. players in recent seasons. New England Revolution forward Charlie Davies kickstarted his career as a member of Hammarby, while Alejandro Bedoya featured for Orebro and Helsingborg before joining his current club, FC Nantes.
Adu was most recently seen during a stint with Serbia’s FC Jagodina, although the midfielder failed to find the field after joining the team last fall. In addition to his MLS stops with D.C. United, Real Salt Lake and the Philadelphia Union, Adu’s career has taken him to Portugal, France, Greece, Turkey and Brazil.
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What do you think of Adu’s latest move? How will the midfielder fare in the Allsvenskan?
Share your thoughts below.
How did he go from not playing in Serbia to signing with a Swedish team? Normally when you fail at a really low level you don’t manage to land better off than you started…
Serbia is the 27th ranked league in Europe, Sweden is 24th.
Freddy’s team is newly promoted so all things being equal you could make a reasonable argument that Fredinho is making a more or less lateral move in terms of league rankings.
That’s closer than I thought, but how does he even earn a lateral move at this point?
Good for him. Hopefully he gets playing time this time around. The last time we really saw him was at the Gold Cup in 2011, but he definitely impressed. I would have liked to see him play in the States again, but he probably is making a lot more money playing in all these random countries. Maybe he was holding out for the CBA to get done earlier before making a decision.
Freddy is the biggest USA tragedy ever. The kid has all kinds of talent but for whatever reason, cannot make it work no matter where he goes. Attitude, work ethic? Who knows but its a big shame that somebody can’t get to him, take him under their wing and turn him around. Last time I saw him play was in a Gold Cup series (last one I think) and he was the best player on the field for the USA. Did that open any doors for him? Not that I can see. JK is done with him apparently and its too bad. Maybe he’s just unreachable? Just a waste of talent
I THOUGHT SANTINO QUARANTA IS A TRAGEDY OF THE LARGEST EPICNESS
He was a failure too but I think Freddy could have been a player if he ever could have got whatever is stopping him fixed. If JK had give 1/2 the time hes given to others with less talent, we might have had something
Ricko,
JK is not a manager of a club. And what Freddy needs is regular playing time at a club.
It would be very difficult for a pro player to play only for his national team.
JK could have offered guidance, advice, personal interest… kind of what he did with Robbie Rogers or Shea in the past. Freddy needs somebody to give him a giant kick in his ass and to try and get him straightened out. Of course, he’s not a kid anymore so maybe it’s a little late for that. Had this been done 5 years ago, he might have a player today.
I see. So JK is to blame for Freddy’s current troubles?
What makes you think somebody did not give him “a giant kick in the ass” already?
I’m sure many other very knowledgeable people in the industry have offered plenty of guidance to Freddy but as noted elsewhere, Freddy is his own man.
Does Freddy strike you as the kind of guy who listens to advice?
Bob Bradley, who bent over backwards for Freddy more than anyone, got a nice substitution appearance vs Panama and about 30 minutes worth of a good game from Freddy vs Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup. for all his trouble. And by trouble I mean he put him on the Confederations Cup roster in 2009 and took him to South Africa and Adu did not see a minute. Then BB put him on the 2009 Gold Cup roster.
There is an All Star cast of players, managers, agents, coaches etc, involved with Adu’s career.
Guess what the one constant is?
I think we should all congratulate Frequent Flier Freddy.
Hopefully Adu gets off his high horse, and start realize career is in trouble.
To be completely honest I’m surprised it’s in the first division.
Gosh, the predictable Adu hatred. So sad. Done more in soccer than any of you, made a good chunk of coin doing it, and is still going at 25. As for suggestions he faked his age, it’s total nonsense. Go back and watch his letterman appearance at 14 and tell me his voice hasn’t broken since then and he isn’t twice the size in terms of skeletal mass.
The undercurrent of “he rejected MLS when it’s too good for him” is under all of this, and it’s kinda nonsense.
+1
The guy plays a certain style… If he could find the right team and setting he could be of value… I watched him with Aris FC… he could play in that league, start and be a good contributor…
He has certainly had some of the worst luck when it comes to managers wanting him then getting canned in the next month or so…
He has made plenty of mistakes on where he has signed and where he chose not to sign but the guy is his own man.
Still going?
We’ll have to take your word for it. He’s played about 75 more minutes of competitive first division soccer than I have in the past two years.
I don’t see much hatred, just some bemusement and gentle mocking at a player who’s bizarre career is an undisputed failure.
Agreed the jokes get old and I wish him the best. The last time I saw him play he was a great spark for the US in that 2011 Gold Cup. I thought he was only gonna get better from there but he hit a bit of adversity and wasted 3-4 years of his career. Let us hope he finds some consistency at the club level in Sweden.
This guy is my hero, he will be the greatest coach one day due to all his experience. How in the world does he keep up with the culture and language of every different league.
Espn should do a story on him, he’s probably the most diverse black dude due to his I soccer career.
One of these days he’s going to get a handsome endorsement deal from Rosetta Stone!
Diverse Black dude? WTF?!
haha right? regardless of his race he’d be equally as diverse………………,.
According to some Swedish papers he’s headed to newly promoted GIF Sundsvall.
How do you pronounce GIF? Like the g in ground or the j in jiffy?
Well if you are a computer geek you say Jif and everyone else says GIF because it freaking looks like GIF.
actually most people say Jif, whereas snobby intellects say Gif because “they know”….. even tho the person who created .GIFs said he always thought it was Jif…..
The American soccer media must just have a template that reads:
“Report: Freddy Adu nearing deal with [team]”
And the followups:
“Freddy Adu (_________): Did not dress.”
and
“Freddy Adu has parted ways with __________.”
Sad but so true.
I’d say he’s lucky that teams keep investing money with him. Does he do anything worthwhile? Doesn’t he seem to have an attitude problemme too?
Good for him, lucky dude to make money playing (or not playing…) soccer and traveling across the world. Dude can retire young with a stack of cash and lifetime of experiences.
I really believe he is several years older than his states age. That is why he was able to dominate at the youth ranks.
that’s an original thought there Rick, thanks.
Youth players (or to be more precise, desperate youth athlete parents) NEVER fabricate their age. Just ask the dude with a mustache that just knocked out my 11 year old.
If i were moving to American and could easily lie to make my kid younger so they got a couple more years of free education where he could learn the language and even job skills if that sports career didn’t take off, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
And many Immigrants do just this all the time
Did you used to post here under the pseudonym FRANK?
THERE IS ONLY ONE ME
Freddy Globetrotter
I am going to design and market “Freddy Adu World Tour” t-shirts. Who’s in?
“I am going to design and market “Freddy Adu World Tour”
t-shirtsquilt. Who’s in?”No shirt has enough material for his professional vacation stops.
your joke was redundant. you should have just added the quilt part…..
He must have a ton of frequent flyer miles by now. Maybe he could become a travel agent when he can’t find another club to take him.
There was a bar in Key West that featured beers from 100 countries. I forget the exact terms but if you drank a beer from all 100 you got a “special” T-shirt.
A similarly themed “beer for every Adu club” promotion might work as well. Or one for every manager.
..and yet, Austin Berry’s signing has more intrigue.
Looking at that picture, there is no way he is 25!
That picture is a couple of years old…
How long has he been 25? Seems like this is his 3rd or 4th year of being 25.
Like the cast of 90210…
or The Karate Kid…
he’ll probably be sent out to (whatever team picks him) U-21 side.
Best of luck.