April 3, 2004: D.C. United open the Major League Soccer season, beating the San Jose Earthquakes, 3-1 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. They received goals from Jaime Moreno, Alecko Eskandarian and Ben Olsen.
The game marked the MLS debut of Freddy Adu, a United midfielder who was already being described as "the next Pelé." He was 14 years old.
That is not a misprint: He was fourteen years and nine months old.
Fredua Koranteng Adu was born on June 2, 1989 in Tema, in the African nation of Ghana. By 1997, at age 8, he was playing soccer against men 3 times his age. At that point, his mother won a green card through a lottery, and the family moved to the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland.
He was able to attend a private school in nearby Potomac, and play with the U.S. Olympic Development Program, and win an Under-14 tournament against Italian teams like Juventus of Turin and Lazio of Rome. Adu led the tournament in scoring, and was named its Most Valuable Player.
MLS recognized the marketing possibilities, and worked out a deal so that the Dallas Burn, who held the top pick in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft, traded it to D.C. for a player allocation. If he was going to play in the league at all, it had to be for D.C., so he could stay in his same school. At 14, he became the youngest American ever to sign a major league professional contract in any team sport.
In that April 3 game, he entered the game as a 2nd-half substitute, breaking Joe Nuxhall's record (age 15 with the 1944 Cincinnati Reds) as the youngest athlete in the history major league sports in North America. On April 17, he scored his 1st goal, in a 3-2 loss to United's arch-rivals, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.
He played in all 30 of DCU's regular-season games, albeit mostly as a sub, scoring 5 goals with 3 assists, and helped them win the MLS Cup. An optimist would have said he was ready. A pessimist would say that MLS must be a crap league, since its defenders couldn't stop a 14-year-old.
But he didn't get any better. After the 2006 season, he was traded to Real Salt Lake. He was named Captain of the U.S. team at the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, in which the U.S. reached the Quarterfinals, thanks in part to his performance. (Argentina won it.)
In the Summer of 2007, at age 18, he was bought by one of the defining teams of European soccer, Benfica of Lisbon, Portugal. MLS had lost control of him. But Benfica didn't think he was ready for top-flight European soccer, and kept loaning him out: To AS Monaco in 2008, to Portuguese opponents Belenenses in 2009, to Greek team Aris in 2010, and to Turkish team Çaykur Rizespor in 2011. In 4 seasons under contract at Benfica, he played a grand total of 14 games for them, scoring 2 goals.
He played for the U.S. team in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the 2009 Confederations Cup, and the 2009 and 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cups, but not in the 2006, 2010 or 2014 World Cups.
In the Summer of 2011, at 22, he returned to MLS, signing with the Philadelphia Union. For most players, this would be the point in their career where their careers would be just getting warmed up. Instead, he did not impress with the Union. He moved to Brazilian team Bahia in 2013, Serbian team Jagodina in 2014, and Finnish team KuPS in 2015.
He came back to America in 2015, signing with the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the new North American Soccer League. He was released after the 2016 season. He played for Polish team Sandecja Nowy Sącz in 2017, and the Las Vegas Lights in 2018. At 26, he played what remains his last professional game. He spent the next 2 years as a youth coach in Maryland. In 2021, he signed with Swedish team Österlen FF, but never played for them.
Did he burn out, physically or psychologically? Was it too much, too soon? Unless and until he tells his own side of the story, we may never know. As of April 3, 2022, he is 32 years old, and not employed by any soccer team, in any capacity.
UPDATE: On October 26, 2022, he gave an interview to USA Today, saying of his playing career, "It's not something I've given up on. I still want to play, and I love the sport way too much, and I know that I have a lot more to give. So that's why I haven't called it quits yet."
In an interview with a sports website in the African nation of Ghana on April 25, 2023, he said, "The one decision I made that I would have done differently is leaving Benfica after the first year that I was there, and going on loan to Monaco. That was the one decision that started the snowball of me having to go from team to team on loan. It's because I wasn't patient enough to stay at Benfica." Given Benfica's historical reputation for developing talent, he had a point.
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April 3, 2004 was a Saturday. This was also the day that Citizens Bank Park opened in Philadelphia. I have a separate entry for that event.
These other games were played in MLS:
* The New York/New Jersey MetroStars beat the Columbus Crew, 3-1 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The MetroStars are now the New York Red Bulls.
* The Kansas City Wizards and the Chicago Fire played to a draw, 1-1 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The Wizards are now Sporting Kansas City.
* The Dallas Burn and the Colorado Rapids played to a draw, 1-1 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Burn are now FC Dallas.
* And the Los Angeles Galaxy beat the New England Revolution, 3-2 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California.
And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal, despite going unbeaten in the Premier League season, loses the FA Cup Semifinal to Manchester United, 1-0 at Villa Park in Birmingham, home of Aston Villa. The following day, at United's Old Trafford (also a neutral site), South London team Millwall beat North-East team Sunderland, 1-0. This made the 2nd division side the the 1st team from out of England's 1st division to play in the FA Cup Final since 1982. Man United would win the Final, 3-0.
The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays had split 2 games in Tokyo; otherwise, the Major League Baseball season hadn't started yet. Football was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 86-75 at the First Union Center(now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-100 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Jason Richards scored 35 points for the Warriors.
* The Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls, 97-83 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns, 124-103 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Dirk Nowitzki scored 34 points.
* And the New Orleans Hornets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 94-81 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.
There were 9 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Bobby Holik scored the winning goal with 3:52 left in overtime.
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Boston Bruins, 5-2 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators, 6-0 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.
* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators, 4-1 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.
* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1 at the Glendale Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. Krys Kolanos scored the winning goal with 2:05 left in overtime.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.
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