The 10 most overhyped footballers of all time

#10 – Freddy Adu

Freddy Adu might be the most overhyped player of all time

It’s long been assumed that at some point in the future, the USA will produce the best football – or “soccer” – player in the world, basically due to the massive size of the country and the level of athletes they’ve produced in other sports. Back in 2004, it appeared that they’d unearthed a player with the potential to reach those lofty heights – forward Freddy Adu.

Adu was selected by DC United in the 2004 MLS Draft at the age of just 14, and a handful of months later he became the youngest player to ever appear in MLS and then the youngest goalscorer, too. In his first professional season, he scored five goals and assisted in three, and it seemed the world was his oyster. 2006 even saw him have trials with Manchester United. But he simply couldn’t live up to the hype, with many observers claiming that he’d simply been thrown into professional senior football at too young of an age.

December 2006 saw him leave DC United for fellow MLS side Real Salt Lake, but since then he’s become a total journeyman, floating through Portugal, France, Turkey, Brazil, Serbia and Finland without really ever coming close to fulfilling his early promise. He’s currently not contracted with any team and at the age of 28 he goes down as perhaps the most overhyped player of all time.