Adu’s Presence Adds a Wrinkle

Major League Soccer begins its ninth season Saturday or, as some at MLS headquarters in New York prefer to call it, Adu Year 1.

Not since Pele arrived in the United States in 1975 to play for the New York Cosmos has a soccer player generated as much media attention as Freddy Adu has in the last week or two.

Pele came with impeccable credentials -- three world championships and the ability to make the ball all but sing. Adu, in stark contrast, has not yet played one minute in MLS, much less won a World Cup.

But at only 14 and earning $500,000 a year, appearing on “60 Minutes” and being featured in virtually every magazine from Sports Illustrated for Kids to Vanity Fair, not to mention newspapers from coast to coast, he is difficult to ignore.

The Ghana-born youngster, who was brought to the U.S. when he was 8 and already has done a television commercial with Pele, is both the youngest player in MLS and highest paid.

Both facts might put some extra bite into opponents’ tackles, which will bring MLS referees into sharp focus all season.

Adu and Landon Donovan -- yesterday’s cover boy -- are being counted on by MLS to provide the league with star power in the absence of any new international signing of note.

Both players are featured in the opening game, with Donovan and the defending champion San Jose Earthquakes on the road against Adu and three-time champion D.C. United at RFK Stadium in a game to be televised live on ABC.

Donovan probably will play 90 minutes -- the game won’t last any longer because MLS has done away with overtime in the regular season -- but how long Adu plays, and whether he starts, will be up to Coach Peter Nowak, who with San Jose’s Dominic Kinnear is new to the league.

Just how Adu copes with life as a professional and how opponents treat him will be among the ongoing stories of the 2004 season, but there are many others.

Here, in capsule form with key player moves, is a look at the league on the eve of Adu Year 1.