2Slick

Over the years, dozens of young MLS players have gone to European clubs for offseason training stints, none of which sparked any significant interest by the media on either side of the Atlantic.

But Freddy Adu isn't your typical MLS youngster, and Manchester United isn't your typical club. And therein lies the source of a growing media circus that has escalated a ho-hum training visit into a full-fledged trial that Adu hopes will lead to a multimilion-dollar transfer.

Adu heads to Man United on Saturday for two weeks of training, and the 17-year-old D.C. United midfielder told SI.com in an interview that he has high aspirations for his first exposure to English soccer.

"I'm hoping it leads to a transfer offer," said Adu, who's in Florida this week training with the U.S. Under-20 national team. "If I go in January I wouldn't be able to play [in England] until my 18th birthday [on June 2, 2007]. Those are the rules. But hopefully this leads to an offer in January or in the summer transfer window next year. That would be awesome."

Whether Adu's hopes are realistic is something Man United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will have to decide. Adu's recently completed third MLS season was promising, especially for a 17-year-old, but not transcendent. He played in all 35 of D.C. United's games, starting 32 of them, and finished with two goals and a career-high eight assists for the team with MLS' best regular-season record.

Adu made his debut for the U.S. senior national team at age 16 last January as a substitute in a 0-0 tie against Canada. After calling Adu into the national-team camp in January, former U.S. manager Bruce Arena left him off the Americans' 23-man World Cup roster.

Man United's Ferguson was asked about Adu at a press conference last Friday. "We've known about him for a long time," said Ferguson, who asked me during a visit to Manchester in 2003 for contact information for Adu's family. "We tried to get him four years ago but he signed for D.C. United. That stopped our progress in keeping tabs on him."

Adu told me that Sir Alex's comments had raised his expectations for the trip. "I hope I can show flashes of the kind of player I can become," said Adu, a left-footer who played most of the season on the right side of D.C. United's midfield. "I know I've got a ways to go. This would really be a test for me so I can gauge where I am by training with these guys. At D.C. United I haven't gotten much time at my natural position, which is attacking midfield. Hopefully that's the position I'll play when I'm training over there."

Adu has one more guaranteed year left on his contract with MLS. (The league retains the option for two more years after that.) It's estimated that he may be worth as much as $5 million to $10 million on the transfer market. His guaranteed salary this season was $550,000, making him the fifth-highest-paid player in MLS.

While D.C. United officials have expressed their support while downplaying Adu's visit to Man United as merely training and not a trial, Adu clearly has different ideas. When asked if his proper development requires him to be in Europe, Adu didn't mince words.

"Yes, I think so," he said. "MLS has been awesome. I've enjoyed my time with D.C. United and I've really grown as a professional, but to see a huge change in my abilities I need to go to Europe. That's where all the best players in the world play ... I would love to go to Europe as soon as possible. Then again, I have a contract to honor with MLS, so we'd have to work that out."

MLS officials have said publicly that they support Adu's sojourn to Manchester and consider him one of the top prospects in U.S. history, but privately some are bewildered by talk of a move in the near-term to Man U. "How does Freddy justify that he's not good enough to play for D.C. United full-time and now he wants to play for Manchester United?" asked one MLS exec.

Adu's response: "Am I good enough to play right now for Manchester United? I don't know. That's what I'm going to find out."

Adu's training sessions with Man United were arranged by his agents with the Wasserman Media Group, who have contacts with Manchester United's youth system. Although Adu has spent a lot of time in Florida over the years, he says he has never met anyone in the family of Malcolm Glazer, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner who also owns Manchester United.

We're probably getting ahead of ourselves here, but even if Man United pursues Adu, there are two additional roadblocks that could stand in his way. The first would be obtaining a U.K. work permit. Adu doesn't come close to having the number of senior national-team appearances to qualify for the minimum standards, and not being 18 yet hurts him as well.

However, there are several precedents in which powerful English clubs have used their clout to persuade the U.K. Home Office to issue work permits to players who don't meet the minimum-caps requirement. Two such examples are U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard (for Man United in '03) and Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel (for Chelsea in '06).

Second, FIFA has a rule that prohibits the transfer of players under 18 to European clubs. However, there appears to be a loophole in the rule, which makes an exception if a player's parent(s) move with him for non-soccer reasons. (Wink-wink.) Case in point: Carlos Vela, the 17-year-old Mexican who was purchased by Arsenal at age 16 from Chivas de Guadalajara.

Unable to secure a U.K. work permit until he turns 18 next March, Vela is currently on loan to Spain's Salamanca, where he's now tied for second in the Spanish second division with six goals this season.

If Man United or another European club were to purchase his contract, Adu says, it's possible he could follow a similar loan path. "One of the big clubs could sign me and loan me to a Dutch or French or Belgian club for a season or two and then I could come back," Adu says. "I want to be in a situation where I'm playing, and I want to learn faster, because I don't respond too well to being brought along slowly."

Adu remains frustrated over being pulled by D.C. United coach Peter Nowak in the 65th minute of United's season-ending 1-0 loss to New England in the MLS Eastern Conference final. Adu was enjoying his best game in weeks and was one of D.C.'s top attacking threats. After his removal he was clearly distraught on the sideline.

"I wasn't happy being out of the game, but what are you going to do?" Adu says. "You try to find out why. You've just got to respect what your coaches do. It was a horrible feeling that I hope I never have again."

If Adu sounds like an eager (perhaps over-eager) teenager, well, that's because he is. But you can't deny his enthusiasm over his upcoming trip. "To go to one of the world's biggest clubs and get a chance to train is an honor and a privilege," he says. "Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of my favorite players, and getting the chance to train with them would be unbelievable."

Yet Adu also cautions that he doesn't want to raise expectations so high that it will be a crushing blow if he doesn't move to Europe now. Ultimately, his trip could be a lot like that of a young college basketball player who tests the waters of the NBA draft process to learn what he needs to work on -- and then returns to college basketball for more seasoning.

"Even if I play well, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll sign me," Adu says. "This is a chance for me to see what English football is all about and see what it takes to get to that level. We'll see what happens ... I'm not happy with the way things ended this season, but the grass isn't always greener on the other side, so you've got to be careful."