Nike chairman Phil Knight once told Sports Illustrated that 13-year old soccer phenom Freddy Adu had the potential to accomplish more than Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, or LeBron James. Knight went on to explain Adu's potential...
"Freddy has the potential to bring soccer almost for the first time into the public's consciousness. Soccer in the United States isn't really part of the culture. What it needs, I think, is a superhero, and he clearly could be it. Now, that's putting a lot of pressure on him, but the kid's got all the potential to do that."
Ten years later, most American sports fans probably don't even know Adu is still playing soccer and still scoring goals. Only Adu is not playing in Europe. And he rarely suits up for the U.S. Men's National Team.
But they do know that he never became that superhero.
At the age of 13 Freddy Adu was on the cover of Sports Illustrated
A month later, Adu signed a $1 million contract with Nike
At the age of 14, Sports Illustrated asked if he was the superstar "who'll finally make America fall in love with soccer?"
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Please follow Sports Page on Twitter and Facebook.