In soccer, quick rises to stardom can be common but sometimes, without proper support, they can lead to shortened careers for players. You won't find a more famous example of that in American soccer than former teenage sensation Freddy Adu. Signed by D.C. United at 14, Adu became the youngest athlete to ever sign a professional contract in 2004, but his career turned into a story of what could've been after stints with 15 different teams over the years. While Adu hasn't officially retired, he's now helping coach other kids to help them avoid some of the mistakes that he made when he was younger.
On Morning Footy (which you can catch every weekday morning from 7-9a.m. on CBS Sports Golazo Network), Adu had a candid conversation with Charlie Davies about how not taking care of his body when he was younger caused injury issues when he was older.
"Let's keep it 100. I was able to get into places where a teenager wasn't supposed to be getting into. I had a lot of friends who were older because I played up when I was younger and we were able to go to College Park, Maryland and we'll get into all the bars and whatnot.
"Just little stuff like that, right? And so I was enjoying all that stuff rather than focusing on... let's say the little things like getting the rest that you need, your diet, getting some stretching in and just taking care of your body."
Adu ended up missing a lot of time for teams with back issues over the years. He spoke of how, these are things that you can get away when you're younger but when those bad habits remain as an older athlete, that's when they catch up to you. Once he started having those issues, they didn't go away remaining for his career and it's something that he'd do differently if he had the chance.
"Sometimes, you have all the talent in the world and it's not enough. You've got to work your butt off to maximize that talent and guys who aren't as talented as you, if they work their asses off, they're going to surpass you," Adu said. "And it happened in my case. There were a few guys that obviously weren't as talented, but they put in the work and they had more success."
In addition to the physical challenges, Adu pointed to his time at Benfica as a sliding-doors moment which changed the course of his career. "The one decision I made that I would have done differently...when I go back and think about it, would have been leaving Benfica after the first year that I was there and going on loan to Monaco. To me, that was the one decision that started the snowball of me having to go on loan from team to team because I wasn't patient enough to stay at Benfica.
"On the flip side of that, a guy like [Angel] Di Maria who was with me at Benfica, decided to stay. A new coach came in, he played, the next thing you know, he balls out, ends up on Real Madrid. I got to Monaco, there was a power struggle between the coach and the president. The president wanted me really bad, the coach at that time didn't feel like I was ready, I guess. So, I didn't play, I didn't get a chance to play a lot, after that everything just kind of snowballed. So that one decision...I would not have gone to Monaco if I could do that again."
Moving into the next phase of his life, Adu wants to help the next generation of kids avoid some of the pitfalls he ran afoul of. He said that it's something that he didn't expect to enjoy but assisting in that 1-1 development and helping them see progress in their games has been fruitful. As someone who has been there and done that in so many leagues across the world, it doesn't get much better than getting individual advice from Adu as a kid.
Having people like Adu around the game to learn from is certainly something that can help prepare the next generation of American soccer players, giving them resources that didn't exist when Adu was struggling to grow into himself as a player. Infrastructure is different now and with so many young players signing pro deals and joining teams, learning from Adu's story is more important now than ever.
