Freddy Adu to Be Released Again—Is This the End for the 'Next Pele'?

Freddy Adu, the former American wunderkind, the player so many hoped would become the first American global soccer superstar, will be released by his club FK Jagodina, it emerged yesterday. If you've never heard of FK Jagodina, well, you're not alone. The club is currently seventh in the Serbian SuperLiga, Europe's twenty-seventh best league. After signing in July, Adu didn't play a single match. In fact, since leaving MLS in 2012, he's played less than one hour of competitive soccer.

It's time to stop wondering if Adu will ever reach his once-great potential. He clearly won't. He burst onto the scene at 14 and sparkled as an 18 year old at the 2007 U-20 World Cup. But that was him at his peak.

Rather, people should look at Adu's career with great empathy. It's a bit of a tragedy, really. He's just as much a failure as he is a young man ruined by hype and the marketing departments of MLS and Sierra Mist.

Consider that Landon Donovan, another American teenage phenom and the player who can best understand the insane pressure placed on Adu, struggled with the spotlight and the burden of being the boy wonder. Wait, that's underselling it. Donovan, the greatest American player ever to play the game, hated the spotlight.

Now consider that Landon Donovan got to remain more or less anonymous until 1999, when he won the golden ball at the U-17 World Cup. Even then, he wasn't a household name until winning the best young player award at the 2002 World Cup. He was 20 years old.

Freddy Adu was "the next Pele" when he was just 14.

At times during Donovan's career, he openly ran from the spotlight, most famously when he took a sabbatical in 2013 and spent time in Cambodia. His experience in Southeast Asia might have done wonders for his mental health and personal well being, but it likely cost him a place on the 2014 World Cup squad.

You could likewise view his decision to retire earlier this month as a way to finally remove himself from that spotlight. He's still only 32, remember. He could have played on. Here's Donovan talking about that decision:

"I think there's sometimes the sense of obligation in people's lives—there's a sense that you have to do something. I've never lived my life that way, and I'm sure it's not always popular with everybody, but at the end of the day, I have to live the life I want to live. And I think that's an important thing to go by.

"I think it's very important in life to make decisions that are best for you, best for your friends and family and, most importantly, best for your happiness. And so, at this point, this is the decision that is best for all those things, and that's why I'm making it."

Now tell me what kind of obligation Freddy Adu must feel. Is he living the life he wants to live? Was playing soccer in Serbia a decision made with his own happiness in mind?

Ultimately, the only person who can answer that is Adu himself, but it's easy to see Adu's adult career, the time after his $2 million move to Benfica, as one big obligation. It's not uncommon for gifted teenagers to fail as top-tier professionals, but Adu soldiers on. He's played at seven clubs since moving to Benfica. Seven. At each club, he's underwhelmed.

Due to all of the hype, there was a kind of momentum behind his career by the time he got to Portugal. That momentum is still there. I doubt it comes from happiness. It certainly doesn't come from striving to be the world's best; that's not going to happen. But it's still there, carrying him, even as his career goes further and further off the rails.