‘He Wasn’t Ready’—MLS Commissioner Admits Mistakes with U.S. Soccer Prodigy Freddy Adu

Now the second youngest player to ever play in MLS, Freddy Adu never amounted to the career many had imagined for him in his early years.

Don Garber (left) expressed regret about how MLS handled Freddy Adu’s (right) skills. | Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

There are few U.S. soccer players who have held the spotlight quite like Freddy Adu did when he broke into MLS at age 14 in 2004 with D.C. United. Yet, for MLS Commissioner Don Garber, that hype and the journey that ensued are filled with regret.

Despite the buzz in Adu’s early teenage years, Adu never amounted to the superstardom many had projected for him. Instead, he played 133 MLS games between D.C. United, Real Salt Lake and the Philadelphia Union, as part of a journeyman career that saw him play for 15 clubs. 

“Freddy is without a doubt the most talented kid we've ever seen at that age,” then-U.S. men’s national team manager Bruce Arena told Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl when Adu was 13 years old.

Added then-D.C. United manager and now famed commentator, Ray Hudson: “A blind man on a galloping horse can see his talent. He’s a little Fabergé egg, and everyone's just trying to protect him.”

Still, he was overexposed. American soccer had waited on a prodigy like Adu, and a young MLS had yet to figure out how to best develop young stars, long before the likes of Alphonso Davies, Ricardo Pepi and now Cavan Sullivan. 

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Don Garber Admits His Mistakes

Garber (left) believes MLS pushed the young Adu (right) too hard too early into his career. | Paul Hawthorne/MLSNETImages

Garber, who was in his fifth season as MLS commissioner in 2004 and remains in the role today, says he and the league got Adu’s journey all wrong. 

“I loved him. I thought we didn’t handle Freddy right,” Garber told former NFL star Chad Ochocinco on The Late Run podcast last week. “He was a kid, and we pushed him, and the team pushed him, and I’m not sure that was the best thing for Freddy.”

“He wasn’t ready, the league wasn’t ready. We needed something ... I hope he’s doing okay.”

While Adu garnered plenty of media and commercial interest from across the U.S. sports landscape, he was never eased into MLS and was seldom sheltered from the spotlight. At the same time, he was thrown right into a key role with D.C. United, a club that was a preeminent force in MLS at the time. 

After leaving D.C., Adu joined Salt Lake and eventually made his way to Europe, where he made 11 Portuguese top-flight appearances for Benfica and nine appearances for Ligue 1’s Monaco, before jumping around from Greece, Türkiye, Brazil, Serbia, Finland, Sweden, and eventually back to the U.S. in MLS and the USL. 

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MLS Now Produces Young Stars

Alphonso Davies went from a young MLS star to a UEFA Champions League winner with FC Bayern Munich. | Miguel A. Lopes/AFP/Getty Images

While Adu never amounted to the player so many had hoped for, the lessons that Garber, MLS, and its teams learned from the experience continue to impact the league today, as it produces young stars with regularity, who move to major clubs around the world. 

When it comes to the Philadelphia Union’s Sullivan, who broke Adu’s record for the youngest player to play an MLS game by 13 days when he debuted in 2024, Garber is much more confident in the developmental plan. 

Sullivan, who has a pre-contract to join English Premier League giants Manchester City once he can move internationally at 18 years old, is the latest in a line that includes Davies and Obed Vargas, among others, now often eased into minutes and held away from as big of a spotlight.

“I think we’re more thoughtful about how to manage a player’s career,” Garber added. “How do you get the coach, the technical director, whatever relationship you have with his manager and his family to be sure that you’re a caretaker of his future?”

While Vargas’ move to Atlético Madrid from the Seattle Sounders stands out as the latest success story, it is far from the last for young stars in MLS, with new teenage performers standing out every week in MLS play, given the league's improved structure for their development.

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