Youngest Soccer Phenomenon

On November eighteenth, two thousand and three, soccer player Freddy Adu becomes the youngest professional team sport athlete in America at the age of fourteen when he signs a contract with DC United of Major League Soccer, making news coverage across America and attracting even more eyes to the MLS, a league that is starting to grow more and more. Today, we're going to dive into how this all happened and what all happened to Freddy Adue today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge, and today we're going to learn even more about Freddie ado and today's trivia question to listen out for is who beat Freddy aduw's record to be the youngest professional team sport athlete in America. Now, pro sports in America has always been something that everyone looks up to and as many of us being kids, our dream is to make it one day to these leagues, and for select few were able to do that younger than anyone else. In the NFL, the youngest player ever drafted was Amoibe Akoye, who was nineteen years old, who actually entered college at the age of sixteen and had graduated by the age of nineteen before joining the NFL. In the NBA, the youngest player was Andrew Bynham, who played in his first game six days after his eighteenth birthday. In the NHL, their youngest player was Hmed Beep Godiline, who made his debut at the age of sixteen in nineteen forty two. In Major League Baseball, Joe Knoxhall made his debut with the Cincinnati Reds in nineteen forty four at just the age of fifteen. Now those are considered the four major sports groups in America, but growing sports leagues in America is the MLS Major League Soccer. They started in nineteen ninety three and had quickly grown to become the fifth largest professional league in the United States and are continued to grow with the popularity of soccer growing across America, catching up with the rest of the world. But ten years after their exception in two thousand and three, they made a big splash to get headlined across America when they signed Freddy Adu at the age of fourteen. But who was Freddy See? He was born in Ghana, where he grew up playing soccer all the time, as it is a national pastime there, and he was playing with teenagers and men until he was eight years old. And then his mother went agreeing to card in a visa lottery and was able to move her and Freddy to America and they moved to Maryland, and of course he quickly got into playing soccer again, but it was a cultural shock, of course, at this age when he knew nothing else and soccer wasn't the biggest sport here, but it's what he'd loved to do, and he would play against boys that were several years older, and at the age of eleven, he actually attended the IMG Academy where he's facing off against high schoolers because he was just that skilled. I mean, he continued to increase his skill so much so that in the two thousand and four MLS Super Draft, the Dallas Byrne had the number one pick and Freddy was being talked about as being the consensus number one pick, but the MLS actually worked out a deal where the DC United team would actually be able to pick him so he could stay closer to home as he was so young, and this allowed him to play for his local team, DC United. There were actually two other players in Bobby Convey and Santino Quaranta who into who both played at the age of sixteen in the MLS, but it wasn't until two thousand and four when he actually played his first game against the San Jo's A Earthquakes and where he was a second half substitution, and once he made his appearance, he officially became the youngest player to appear in a United States professional sports team, and just two weeks later, he would go on to score his first goal and again being the youngest to do that as well. And in his first season, he finished with five goals in three assists in thirty regular season games. Although he did start a few times, he was mainly in a backup role, which is understandable for how young he was, and this happens with rookies across all sports. You don't always just make a big splash right away. Now, before his first season, he signed his contract that was estimated to be five hundred thousand dollars a year and would offer an additional five hundred thousand dollars in marketing deals, making a million dollar contract and making him the highest paid player in MLS history, which definitely made everyone in the league kind of upset at Freddy. You had men who had been playing for years working their way up with this upstart league, and this kid who's not even starting is making more than you. It's a challenge that a lot of us deal with in our regular lives, and it's very frustrating, and you can understand why other players would be frustrated with him, and it definitely stunted his growth as he didn't have complete support from a lot of players and teammates. So definitely allowed cause Freddy to be kind of introverted and kind of a loner, and this stunted his growth developed physically and mentally as he didn't have people to work out with, people to teach him other than coaches, and he didn't have the support of a team, and that was definitely a challenge. And in his second season, he was actually suspended one game after he complained about playing time to the media. But he really struggled his first three seasons and minute even after three seasons, he was only seventeen, but during that time he only scored eleven goals in eighty seven matches. He wasn't the savior for the league that everyone thought he would be. Despite his challenges, he was selected as an MLS All Star two times, but on December of two thousand and six, he would get traded to Real Salt Lake, where he would play just one season, scoring one goal in eleven games. And after this he opted out of his contract and decided to join Benficia of the Portugal League and started playing in Europe, and he would play for them and get loaned out to multiple teams during that time. Now, if you don't know, and loaned out means to kind of get to play with a few teams here and there, but you still belong to your original team. And he would play there until twenty eleven, when he would come back to MLS and join the Philadelphia Union, where he'd played there for two years, scoring a total of seven goals in thirty five contests. And again he would bounce around to some other leagues across the world before coming back to the North American Soccer League, which is kind of like a minor league for soccer, and play with the Tampa Bay Rowdies for a couple of years, then play with the Las Vegas Lights of the United States League before joining, although he would be released at the end of the season and he wouldn't sign again to a team until twenty twenty when he signed with the Swiss football team, and that would be the last team he could play for, and he finished with a career twenty nine goals in league play. And many say that Freddy on the field was an adequate player. He wasn't the best player. He wasn't adequate a guy that could make the roster, but no one that was an All Star and the only reason he made All Star appearances was fan votes. But he didn't live up to his potential, and there's many reasons for that. You know, it's probably because he started too young, when he didn't have the mental development that many youngsters get. A lot of players when they start so young, they're not fully developed. At the age of fourteen, you're not fully developed. You're still going through puberty, you're still learning what it's like to be a person, let alone play on a major league soccer level. And it didn't help that many resented him in the league for how much he was being paid, being touted as the savior of the league, and he didn't seem to be any better than they were. Though he could play on the field and he was good enough to be in the league. He wasn't the savior and he wasn't an All Star, and many label him a failure for that. But he got to live out his dream. He played professional in America and overseas, and he got to play soccer for over fifteen years, which for many of us would be great. And it's crazy to think that he is out of soccer now and he played fifteen years of professional soccer and he's only thirty five years old. He grew up a lot. He grew up fast, and sometimes that's not the best thing and really depends on the people. But a lot of times the youngest players take time to develop, and Freddie really wasn't given the time to develop. Teams didn't nurture him. He got bounced around a lot of times. And if you look at the success stories of young players and other sports, usually they are supported. Wayne Gretzky was really young when he played his first professional game, but he was nurtured by the team and they slowly worked their way up with him. You look at others like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett who were fresh out of high school joining the NBA, and they also were nurtured and took time. The teams took time to develop them. And sometimes even though you get them early, they're not going to save your franchise right away. You got to develop them and hope your team and your development can bring out the greatness in them. And in twenty twenty three, the Sacramento Republic signed thirteen year old Devon Kimberrow to a professional contract, beating Freddie's record, making him the youngest in US history. As they are part of the USL and he and hopefully they will learn from the challenges that I had with Freddie and he can become even more successful and look to Freddie as a guiding light. And if you want to dive into more MLS content, check out the Designated Players and MLS podcast, where your host Andrew and Connor go through all things in the MLS past, present and future so you don't miss out on all your soccer needs. And if you enjoy today's episode of Daily Sports History, please tell a friend about it. Best way for us to grow is where I a mouth. Have you telling a friend how much you're learning? On Daily Sports History. They'll want to learn too, and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History And did you catch the answer today's trivia question. The youngest player to beat Freddie Adou's record to be the youngest player in North American team sports history was Devon Kimbro, who signed a professional contract with the Sacrament of Republic at the age of thirteen games