Freddy Adu and 'The next big thing'

I remember when this kid was supposed to be Pele/Maradona good.

Having watched him right now you can only laugh at how mediocre he is.

Which other players didn't live up to the hype set for them by fans and the media?

I honestly never expected much from him. There have been players that have has alot of "hype" developed around them, way too early. Walcott is one of these players, yet I am expecting to see alot from him in the future. As for Freddy, if he really wanted to become the next Maradonna, I feel he would of had to move to Europe a year or two ago. Don't get me wrong, he is pretty decent for his age, but not the legend he was made out to be.

As for other players that had alot of speculation around them... I think Gurcoff (or however you spell it) had alot around him but AC Milan is kind of ruining that for him... Arteta was supposed to be great but had his career ruined, still a great player though... Quaresma was also supposed to be the "future" of Portugal many years back but had his career ruined by Barca, still a fabulous player though... I'm pretty sure there are alot of other guys that had performed a little or alot under their expectation... its just apart of life... anyways, gone to bed cause its getting late...

freddy adu is just another african lying about his age.

he looked good when he was about 18 playing against 14 year olds.

he is american you know. but I believe he wiil come good he is only 18 still and look he has been playing in the mls it isnt the best league t prove yoursef in he wiil come good

he aint american.

he is from ghana. his mum won a green card in a lottery and earned a new life in america when he was a kid.

as ever with kids born out there they pretend to be younger in order to recieve extra benefits etc

he was born in ghana though, they hyped him up too much the media should have just let him develop he was pressured to much into a big move

Balotelli is being hyped too much as well and he's 17 (Let's act smart and say that he is actually 25 years old, because that's what Ghanaians do..., maybe he does it for more money too..).

Biggest failure is Rooney, he scores about 12 goals per season and he is supposed to be the best English player.

I think stormfront would be more up your street steely.

i believe thats slanderous

Just offering some helpful advice.

what i wrote above was fact.

his mum won the green card lottery

(apart from the last line, that is speculation admittedly and is something that i have encountered many times from personal experience)

I wasn't commenting on the green card lottery, which I did already know about.

what the age thing?

many africans do lie about their age. many of them are never issued with birth certificates.

i know you like proof so...
.
http://www.usafricaonline.com/ngrwkforce.asagwara.html

alternatively visit a school in Newham

Agreed, Rooney has been a let down, firs season or so he was really good. Now he is just good. I think it was his raging temper that motivated him, but thats cooled off a little and there is less motivation. He doesn't score many, but he is superb at assists.

Just because Nigerians do it doesn't mean Ghanians do it. They are two different countries with two different cultures.

Not surprised by some of the comments here,but what else is new!

Don't know if anyone else mentioned it but he actually plays for benfica the last i heard.

Anyway ,when they were hyping Adu over here i couldn't understand why. Yeah he had tricks and speed ,but he was erratic and could rarely finish off a play. I soon started to get tired of the media hype machine and never really watched him in the mls. Every time i did see him ,it just seemed like he was a boy amongst men, as the older players were not about to get embarrassed by a kid.

Having said that, i watched a U-20 tournament last year and he was incredible. I don't know if he had already started playing in Portugal at that time ,but the difference in his game was astonishing. He was man of the match every time he played,even though it was against his u - 20 piers .

I don't k ow how he will fare against players in the other top leagues in Europe ,but he seems to be on his way to being a decent player ,he is definitely improving anyway.

split hairs all you like to avoid the truth mate.

are you a member of the Labour Party by any chance?

Yeah I'm splitting hairs, thats like saying a French person would do something just because a Spanish person did it.

Correct.

Sometimes it makes life easier for certain types to tar everyone with the same brush ,that's why we have a lot of the problems that exist today in the world.

Indeed and given that I'm African, I guess I must be 35 and not 22.