By TERRY MADDAFORD
Ryan Nelsen will not turn teenage sensation Freddy Adu into a world-beating soccer player, but his steadying influence may help ensure the Ghanian-born whizz-kid keep his feet firmly on the ground.
"Sure, we were really excited when Freddy came to us," said Nelsen, who captains Adu's DC United in
the American Major League Soccer championship. "But it wasn't easy for him.
"When everyone, and I mean everyone, was telling him he would be the next Pele it was always going to be difficult. I have used some old-fashioned Kiwi values in talking things through with him.
"I would like to think he appreciates what we, and me, are doing for him," said Nelsen, who has swapped his DC United captain's armband to his All Whites shirt to lead his country - injury permitting - in the Oceania Nations Cup which kicks off in Adelaide tomorrow.
"I have no doubt he is the most talented 14-year-old footballer in the world. Almost certainly the best under-18 player as well but these comparisons with Pele are crazy and premature.
"They have to let him find his feet. Given time he will be able to do anything. But we must all be patient.
"It has been great to be along for the ride," said Nelsen. "He attracts huge crowds wherever he plays. We have had great turnouts at our RFK Stadium but it has been an even bigger deal when we have been away.
"All of our away games have attracted crowds of over 30,000. That has to be good for the league as a whole."
To their credit, Washington-based DC United have refused to leap on to the Adu merry-go-round.
They baulked at suggestions he should be pitched straight into their starting lineup once they had secured his prized signature.
United coach Peter Nowak instead allowed him to take those first tentative steps off the substitute's bench 61 minutes into United's April 3 home match against San Jose.
His appearance in the eventual 2-1 win for United was just another chapter in an already remarkable story.
That debut meant Adu became the youngest person in more than 100 years to play a professional team sport in the US.
On signing a six-year deal with DC United last November - for a cool US$500,000 ($800,000) - Adu became the highest-paid player in the MLS after turning down (on his mother's insistence) a reported US$750,000 bid from Italian giant Inter Milan.
The US$1 million sponsorship deal from Nike was a nice sweetener.
Adu was born in Tema, Ghana on June 2 1989.
In 1997, after his mother Emelia had won an immigration lottery, Freddy and his family settled in Potomac, Washington DC.
His father Maxwell soon did a runner - and has made no contact with Freddy, his mother or younger brother Fro - since.
A year after arriving in the States, Adu joined the US Olympic Development Programme and was soon attending youth trials at a US Soccer Federation Camp.
In no time he had gone the full circle, taking the skills he had shown while kicking a ball around in recess at school to a US regional team who played matches against Italian youth sides in 1999 and 2000.
In February last year Adu became an American citizen. In August he played for his adopted country at Fifa's World Under-17 Championships in Finland where the US bowed out in the quarter-finals, beaten by eventual champions Brazil.
He then stepped up to World Youth (under-20) Championship in the United Arab Emirates in December - again the youngest player on show.
Adu scored four goals in four appearances at the 16-nation under-17 tournament but none at under-20 level.
It did not take long for his goalscoring talents to show up for United.
His first, in the 75th minute of his team's 3-2 loss to MetroStars at Giants Stadium, made him the youngest player - by almost two years - to score in the MLS.
His second, again for a losing United team (beaten 4-2 by LA Galaxy), was a cracker when he capped a 27m run with a 15m shot into the top right corner of the Galaxy net.
He admitted that goal had been a huge boost to his confidence.
"Now I'm having a lot of fun. It wasn't fun at first. Guys [have] got to watch out now because I'm back to the old me," he said.
"I just got the ball in the right position. That's my strength, just going at people, taking the ball to them. I saw the floodgates open."
Asked what now for Adu, who turns 15 next week and will leave high school, Nelsen simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Most kids of his age would be thinking about college [university]," said Nelsen. "He won't have to bother."
The only worry for Nelsen and DC United might be in keeping Adu happy.
Their concern, obviously, in news that Adu's tennis-playing girlfriend Stephanie Herz has opted to return home to the Netherlands.
That further fuelled speculation PSV Eindhoven might turn up the pressure in a bid to lure him to Europe.
The Adu story is a short one but with enough twists and turns to already make it a mini-epic. There is, no doubt, much more to come.
All about Freddy
Height: 1.72m
Weight: 66kg
Birthdate: June 2, 1989
Hometown: Tema, Ghana
Came to United States courtesy of a lottery win
Now the highest paid player in the American league after signing US$500,000 ($800,000) deal with United DC plus his US$1 million sponsorship deal with Nike
Youngest person in more than 100 years to play a professional team sport in the US
By TERRY MADDAFORD
Ryan Nelsen will not turn teenage sensation Freddy Adu into a world-beating soccer player, but his steadying influence may help ensure the Ghanian-born whizz-kid keep his feet firmly on the ground.
"Sure, we were really excited when Freddy came to us," said Nelsen, who captains Adu's DC United in
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