'It's a joke': Freddy Adu set for trial with Polish club against manager's wishes

Guardian sport
Updated

  • Adu to join newly promoted Polish club Sandecja Nowy Sacz on trial

  • One-time phenom has played for 13 clubs in eight different countries

Freddy Adu
Freddy Adu has struggled to establish himself since turning pro with much fanfare in 2004, playing for 13 different clubs in eight different countries. Photograph: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

Former US international Freddy Adu has joined the Polish club Sandecja Nowy Sacz on trial, despite their manager not wanting him there.

The 28-year-old Adu was regarded as one of football’s most promising talents when DC United made him the youngest athlete ever to sign a professional contract in the United States in 2004, but a permanent move to Sandecja, who are newly promoted to the Polish first division, would represent his 14th club in a ninth different country.

Sandecja said in a statement they will make a decision on Adu after his medical, but their manager Radoslaw Mroczkowski was outspoken in his disagreement with the move.

“It’s a joke,” Mroczkowski told Polish website Sportowefakty.pl. “I read in the media about his trial. I asked the sporting director [Arkadiusz Alexander] why he did not tell me anything [about Adu]. After all, he sent me a text message that there ‘will be a player on trial’ and that they all knew. Marketing knew, the staff at the club knew ... Only the coach did not know who the trialist was.”

Adu was most recently on trial with Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer earlier this year, but failed to earn a contract. He has not played a professional match since he was released by NASL side Tampa Bay Rowdies at the end of 2016.

“Whoever invited him, let him trial him. What is the point of having such a player?” Mroczkowski added: “The CEO says that it’s marketing. We may as well have Janusz Chomontek [a Polish football freestyler].”