Freddy Adu was dubbed “the next Pele” and signed a $500,000-a-year deal at 14, but ended up becoming the ultimate journeyman - though his reputation on a popular video game has never faded.
Adu, now 36, finished his career in 2021 while playing in Sweden.
On the twilight of his career, the Ghanaian-born midfielder played for 15 clubs across nine different countries, but it was the beginning, the very definition of bursting onto the scene, where he really shone.
At the age of 14, Adu signed his first professional contract with DC United worth an estimated $500,000 per year, making him the highest-paid Major League Soccer (MLS) player at the time. The deal was not just astonishing from a financial sense, though.
Freddy Adu was dubbed “the next Pele” and signed a $500,000-a-year deal at 14
|GETTY
He became the youngest-ever American athlete, never mind footballer, to sign a professional contract. He later became the youngest to feature in the MLS and then the youngest to score in it, too.
Naturally, Football Manager, formally Championship Manager, fans were immediately hooked by his meteoric and sudden explosion onto the scene.
Freddy Adu made his debut for DC United at the age of 14
|GETTY
Football Manager is an iconic sports video game and boasts a reputation for scouting out the sport’s youngest and most exciting talents from all corners of the world.
Young proteges such as Neymar, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney quickly garnered substantial reputations on the game as a “wonderkid”, a term for youngsters who are destined for greatness. Recently, Endrick of Real Madrid and Ansu Fati of Barcelona were labelled with the same title.
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The American played for 15 clubs across nine different countries
|GETTY
But not all of the so-called “Football Manager wonderkids” can translate the success from the game onto the pitch - evidenced by the case of Adu.
His contract at DC United and early goalscoring exploits cemented his position as the best player to use on the game, with fans reminiscing of his in-game ability even two decades down the line.
Despite his legendary status in the video game, Adu has remained insistent that he has never picked it up to try and play it, nor has he been tempted to, yet.
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Adu, speaking exclusively to GBNews via the home of sports betting, admitted: “To this day, I've still never played Football Manager! Really, to this day, it just wasn't as big here in America, so we weren't really playing it like that.
“I know about it, I know what it is, I know what it's about. To this day, I still get random Instagram messages from people that are like, ‘Football Manager wonderkid’, ‘You're the king’, ‘You're the GOAT’ - calling me Football Manager GOAT! I just laugh when I see it!
“I’m on this thing called Cameo and people – it's always the British people – they always want you to wish someone a happy birthday or congratulations, or whatever.
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Freddy Adu's stats on Football Manager 2005 were pretty good, to say the least
|FOOTBALL MANAGER
“So they're always like to say, ‘Hey, it's Freddie the Football Manager GOAT, ’ just stuff like that. It just makes me laugh… I think it's great.
“You know, I hear about it so much, I might have to play it! Just so I can tell people that I've played it before, because people are really surprised, and they're like, ‘You've never played it? You're like the best player in that game!”
But Football Manager fans will always hold Adu at the forefront of their fondest memories of the game.
So much so, one fan on X went as far to figure out that, should Adu have reached his potential in real football that he had in the game, what would his market value be?
Through some interesting calculations, he believed he would be worth an astonishing £1.25billion. In comparison, Lamine Yamal, currently the most valuable footballer in the world, is worth around £175million.
Adu even discussed Yamal's recent controversies. The 18-year-old allegedly holidayed with a model 12 years his senior, and Adu gave the sensation an important piece of advice: "If you’re going on holiday with an older woman, make sure it’s your mother!"
While his career in football never garnered momentum, it never followed the true trajectory that his first contract showed it could; Adu's Football Manager legacy will continue in the minds of all players forever.