10 Football Manager Legends Who Flopped In Real Life
4. Freddy Adu
In the game:
Not just any Football Manager wonderkid, Adu was THE wonderkid. In the early games under the new Football Manager title (caused by a split with Championship Manager publisher Eidos), the teenage American forward was quite simply the most desirable player in the game. Pacy and with an eye for goal, FM2005-era Adu would grow into a forward with an annual strike rate in triple figures.
Last year the website Sport Bible voted Adu the greatest Football Manager wonderkid in the game's history. Few would argue.
In reality:
The only reason that this isn't out in front at number one is that looking at Adu as a potential global superstar was hardly confined to the Football Manager community.
The people at Sports Interactive can hardly be blamed when everyone around saw Adu as the next Pelé (a view endorsed by even the original Pelé). At 14 he became the youngest person ever to sign a professional contract in all US sports. Within a couple of years he had a trial with Man United and a multi-million dollar endorsement contract with Nike. He went on to play for European giants Benfica and Monaco.
It was all downhill from there, though. Everything had come so easily for Adu at such a young age that he never really learnt to work hard for what he wanted. Mostly just a luxury player, he lacked the work rate or commitment to achieve at the highest level.
His twenties saw him turn from prodigy to journeyman flop, spending brief unsuccessful stints in Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Serbia and Finland.
Adu was last seen overweight and only very sporadically showing glimpses of the old magic at US minor league club Las Vegas Lights. Released by the Lights in 2018, the once next big thing retired before he even hit 30.