Remember Freddy Adu? Remember the guy that was supposed to save American soccer? Four months ago he signed with Kuopion Palloseura, in the Finnish first division. They’re the eleventh team the still-somehow-only-26-year-old Adu has played for: D.C. United —> Real Salt Lake —> Benfica —> AS Monaco —> Belenenses (Portugal) —> Aris (Greece) —> Çaykur Rizespor (Turkey) —> Philadelphia Union —> Bahia (Brazil) —> Jagodina (Serbia) —> KuPS (Finland)
As you might suspect, the Finnish first division—the Veikkausliiga—isn’t particularly strong. The average monthly wage is just $2,000—even the first division players are barely full-time professionals—and according to UEFA’s methodology it is the 35th best league in Europe. It is ranked behind Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, among 30 other better leagues.
But here’s the thing: at this point Freddy Adu isn’t even good enough for a mid-table team in the 35th best league in Europe. According to a Finnish soccer blogger World Soccer Talk interviewed earlier this week, Adu is clearly out of shape, and the coach won’t play him even though the board would like him too. Instead, Adu has been playing for KuPS’ reserve team, which plays in the fourth division of the 35th best league in Europe.
Which leads us to the clip above, of Adu striking a (very nice!) free kick on a terrible pitch against competition about as good as a Sunday beer league to the smattering applause of the approximately 15 fans in attendance and Adu and his teammates barely even bothering to celebrate the goal. Damn, man.
h/t r/soccer
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