Freddy Adu.

[Jordan]

It's not especially uncommon for big international clubs to poach young talent, what is uncommon is for someone - anyone - to be able to protect exactly how a player will grow, hence the word 'potential.'

Being well developed at 14 isn't especially grounds for pre-emptively expecting him to be The Next Big Thing either, really.

Look at Gio Dos Santos - part of a glorious generation of Mexican youngsters that achieved fantastic things, alongside Carlos Vela as one of the true stars of tomorrow! What's he done for Tottenham so far?

All I'm saying is that Freddy Adu was billed, as a kid, as being of the ability and effectiveness we're seeing in the likes of Messi or Torres or Villa and that I highly doubt he would have had anywhere near the same degree of hype if he'd been brought up in Europe.

I wonder if Adu would have been a better 19 y.o. player (I don't think he's any older... well, that much older ) had he been brought up in Europe without the same type of hype. Yes, he was a precocious kid, but he would have been following a big club's tested model for developing young talent instead of playing first team football at 14. He's been great at every youth level up to U-23, but hitting that "next level" hasn't happened (yet?).