Adieu Adu?

ADIEU Adu?

article yesterday in nyt on freddy adu, the lebron james of american soccer, no, no the embryonic michael jordan of american soccer. even scouts from european teams like juventus and manchester united pronounce him a possible a once-in-a-generation talent.

made me recall a conversation i had with a soccer fan friend of mine a few weeks ago. i said what i said above, that mls should sell the farm to keep this kid home. my friend said, "i hope he goes to europe so he can develop.

the sentiment was so foreign to me that i paused, not knowing quite what to say, then just essentially repeated myself. the THOUGHT that freddy adu would wind up with manchester united or someone had crossed my mind, as it has that of every soccer fan in america, but the SENTIMENT that an american soccer fan wuld WANT freddy to go to europe had not.

sometimes exposure to an opposite point of view can be mind-expanding. there's no doubt that adu would see better competition in the epl or serie a or the bundesliga than in mls, and because of that he would probably devlop more. i go on that assumption anyway.

the issue for my friend was the individual's interest, what's best for freddy. my interest was the opposite, or at least different, what's best for american soccer. soccer has always clung to life on the american sports scene. mls has always augmented its meager coffers by loaning or selling tis best players abroad--joe-max moore, brian mcbride, casey keller, etc. this deligitimizes mls and is something every league official and every american soccer fan recognizes, as does fifa, which looks askance at mls anyway.

if mls got freddy adu, and if that increased league revenues to the point where mls could stand of its own without loaning/selling its best players, soccer might gain a football in the u.s.

those are a lot of "ifs" and "maybes," too many for my friend, but not for me. i want american soccer to grow. i want to see the adus and zindanes and beckhams on AMERICAN fields, not have to go to some soccer bar to see them. maybe that's selfish. maybe even jingoistic. "boycott french wines!," "keep freddy adu home!"

these opposing values are not exclusive of course. i think my friend wants mls to succeed, i certainly hope adu develops to his potential, but the "equities" of this case, the point on the continuum where this case lies between "best for freddy" and "best for american soccer" are so skewed toward the latter that my friend's position seems as incomprehensible to me now as it did then.

america has got some great futbol players, our world team is ranked 10th or 11th depending on the week (we flip flop with england, by the way). conceedingly mls is not anywhere near as strong as the epl but it is major league, given the "first division" imprimatur by fifa. it's not like i'm wanting adu to stay home and play in the a-league for the pittsburgh riverhounds. freddy would develop just fine in mls.

and on the other side you have the enormous potential benefit to american soccer vs the drop-on-the-ocean effect he would have in europe. freddy adu would do nothing for man-u or real madrid compared to what he would do for mls. sometimes exposure to an oppositie point of view can be mind-expanding. sometimes not.

alas, my friend will probably get his wish. the times article also reported that adu is being pursued eagerly by...manchester united.

-benjamin harris