Groundbreaker

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BRADENTON, Fla. -- He is a shameless academic truant, a juvenile delinquent in red cleats. Around the corner and down the road, his schoolmates at the Edison Academic Center wrangle with electrons and elements; here on the pristine emerald pitch of the IMG sports academy, Freddy Adu basks in the warm coastal sun, nary a textbook in sight.

"Shouldn't you be in school or something?" Nick Garcia jokes.

Chemistry class, to be exact. Then again, Adu has a pretty good reason for playing hooky: The 14-year-old soccer prodigy from Potomac is making his unofficial debut with D.C. United, absorbing lessons from men twice his age during a preseason scrimmage against Garcia and the rest of the U.S. national team.

As far as excuses go, it's at least as solid as a doctor's note. And vastly superior to the proverbial hungry dog.

"It's OK," Adu says with a sly grin. "I'm caught up with enough class that I can skip at least one day."

A day. A year. Adolescence. In Adu's fast-forward world, the differences are almost moot. The top pick in January's Major League Soccer draft, the 5-foot-8 striker is widely considered to be the best young player in the world, a potentially transcendent talent to rival basketball's LeBron James.

Since moving with his family from Ghana to suburban Maryland in 1997, Adu has starred for the U.S. under-17 national team, spurned offers from international powerhouses like Manchester United and signed a six-year contract with MLS that reportedly will pay him $500,000 this season, tops in the league.

Like James, Adu is skipping college; unlike the NBA's prize rookie, he's bypassing most of his prep career, too. Adu expects to graduate high school in mid-March before suiting up for D.C. United's nationally televised April3 opener.

In doing so, he will become the youngest player for a major league American team in more than a century -- and perhaps the only pro athlete who can afford any car in the RFK stadium parking lot without legally being able to drive a single one.