Living up to the label – Freddy Adu one of many that have failed to live up to unreasonable expectations
By Laura Jones.
Freddy Adu, the proclaimed ‘new Pele’ has been found hosting nightclub evenings in Washington this week instead of playing top-level football. Laura Jones asks whether labelling promising players as a new version of someone else is worth the pressure.
Barry Ferguson, manager of Blackpool in February 2014, said of American striker Freddy Adu, “He is a great lad but I’m more than happy with what I’ve got. I have a strong squad.”
For a player who was dubbed the ‘new Pele’ at the age of 14, being told he can train with Blackpool but that he’s not ‘strong’ enough to earn even a short-term contract, shows a long fall from the superstar shelf.
Adu appears to have laughed off the suggestion that his new career is as a nightclub promoter and that he’s only hosting one evening a week. However, Freddy hasn’t suggested he’ll be back to playing football anytime soon.
The former Benfica forward won’t be the last to be tainted with the unrealistic expectation of living up to the superstar tag. Ariel Ortega was destined to be the ‘new Maradona’. He had the skill and the attitude to match. The comparison was inevitable but did it actually help his career path?
Ortega sabotaged his career, whether this was through pressure or his natural tendency, we don’t know. He was described as stubborn and feisty which earned him the title of ‘little donkey’. In the 1998 World Cup quarter-final the Argentinian headbutted Edwin van der Sar, what started out as a possible booking for diving escalated into a red card for violent conduct.
Players are emerging as the new Cristiano Ronaldos, 18-year-old Benfica striker Goncalo Guedes being the latest, but before him was 15-year-old Joao Filipe. The next generations of Portuguese forwards are lining up to be showered in hyperbolic praise. When their meteoric rise doesn’t occur they automatically become a disappointment even if they do turn out to be excellent footballers. Excellent isn’t Ronaldo.
Those who share the genes of superstar footballers are labelled even before they’ve had a chance to prove they have any footballing ability. Brooklyn Beckham is currently working his way through the Arsenal youth system and has earned a call-up to the Under-18’s.
In terms of proving football ability a family name is about as useful as a vestigial tail. It might get you connections to clubs but it doesn’t mean that the family genetics automatically evolves the progeny into a better or even equivalent footballer. Brooklyn may have a footballer’s gene from his dad, but he’s also half Spice Girl.
Sergio Aguero’s son Benjamin will have the pressure of a nation on him as he is growing up because he shares the genes of his father and his grandfather, Diego Maradona. He’s only five and already he’s being filmed and analysed playing football.
Young players who are striving to be elite athletes are under the microscope by clubs, agents and fans alike. The labelling gives them parameter so they can judge how far they will go, how much they can be sold for and how much they will be adored.
This tag of perfectionism is stressful and for young people it is something to rebel against. Whether they are subconsciously failing to live up to expectations is unknown but pining them with unattainable labels is self-defeating.
Perfectionists burn themselves out and those that can’t cope with the pressure fold. The label hangs heavy around the throat.
No one will ever be Pele or Maradona again so why psychologically pressurise these young players with these labels? Let Pele be Pele and let Ross Barkley be Ross Barkley and not the new Paul Gascoigne. Then hopefully he’ll end up as a regular international and not a host at Stringfellows.
Read more from Laura Jones here!
Follow @YICETOR
The Offside Rule 
Leave a comment