Not Spurs.....but
Freddy Adu was being touted as (another) "new Pele" at the age of 14!!
Bloody ridiculous.
"From before the time of his signing with D.C. United at the age of 14, Adu was spoken of and treated as the future of United States soccer;[2] even being referred to as "the next Pelé".[3] However, he failed to live up to the expectations and, after leaving D.C. United in 2006, he became a journeyman,[4] playing for fourteen teams in eight countries: the United States, Portugal, Monaco, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Serbia, and Finland. "
Don't forget the US league was proper shit then
2004–2006 D.C. United 87 (11) 2007 Real Salt Lake 11 (1) 2007–2011 Benfica 11 (2) 2008–2009 → AS Monaco (loan) 9 (0) 2009 → Belenenses (loan) 3 (0) 2010 → Aris (loan) 5 (1) 2011 → Çaykur Rizespor (loan) 11 (3) 2011–2013 Philadelphia Union 35 (7) 2013 Bahia 2 (0) 2014 Jagodina 0 (0) 2015 KuPS 5 (0) 2015 → KuFu-98 (loan) 3 (2) 2015–2016 Tampa Bay Rowdies 12 (0) 2018 Las Vegas Lights 14 (1
This reminds me of one of those rare moments when the hype turned out to be justified.
Before USA ‘94 The Mirror (of all papers) ran a double page hype piece about the ‘new Pele’. An unknown 17 year old called Ronaldo.
One of the most annoying things about Greasy Ron is that most people think of him rather than Real Ronaldo. Greasy Ron even played for Real, purely to make it more confusing.