S1 Ep. 1: The Legend of Freddy Adu

American Prodigy: Becoming Great

Blue Wire

Sports

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2020

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the streets of Ghana, Freddy played with boys twice his age. In the D.C. suburbs, Freddy went from playing at recess to dominating travel tournaments all within a week. Just six months into his stay at the prestigious IMG Academy in Florida, Freddy was at the top of the class. He had teams in England, Italy, Spain and America salivating as they waited for him to turn pro. That was before he dominated the FIFA U-17 World Championship. Grant Wahl knew it was time for Freddy to sign, but where? American Prodigy listeners! We want to learn more about you! Please fill out this quick survey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by Coors Light.
0:03.0	Coors Light's the one I choose when I need to unwind.
0:06.0	So when you need to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill.
0:09.0	Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drisly or Instacart.
0:14.0	Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado.
0:16.0	Celebrate responsibly.
0:18.0	It was January 2016. I was reporting a story in Manchester, England, and my friend Aleko Escondarian happened to be
0:26.6	visiting there as well.
0:28.6	We met for dinner at the Lowry Hotel, and Aleko started telling some wild stories about what
0:35.1	it was like to play for DC United in 2004 amid the circus of Freddie
0:40.3	Adieu's first season.
0:42.3	I thought I knew the Freddie Adieu saga pretty well.
0:45.4	In the early 2000s, I had been all over the prodigy beat for Sports Illustrated.
0:50.6	In 2002, I wrote SI's first cover story on a 17-year-old basketball player from Ohio, a guy named LeBron James.
0:59.2	A year later, I heard about a 13-year-old soccer player named Freddie Adieu, who was astonishing the people in the soccer community who had seen him play.
1:08.0	So I went to U.S. Soccer's Under 17 Residency Program in Florida to write a magazine
1:12.6	story about him. When I got there, I saw him myself, and I couldn't believe it. Plenty of
1:19.5	smart soccer people told me, Freddie could become the real thing, the first American men's global
1:26.1	soccer superstar. A blind man on a galloping horse could see his talent.
1:30.3	When he had the ball at his feet, it was just electric.
1:34.3	I don't belong on the field with this player.
1:36.3	He's that much better than all of us.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Blue Wire, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Blue Wire and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.