‘Freddy Adu was just like Messi’: what happened to America’s Pelé?

At 14, the wonderkid became the highest paid player in MLS and youngest-ever USMNT player. His career was ultimately defined by hype and disappointment

In the summer of 2007, Freddy Adu had reached a crossroads.

He was on his way back from the 2007 Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Canada, at which he'd played the best football of his career - a career now almost four years old, despite the fact he'd turned 18 just a month earlier, and one comprised first of immeasurable hype and latterly of disappointment.