Spotlight dims

Now that Freddy Adu is showing the world what the hype was all about, the talk about the teenage soccer sensation is barely a whisper these days.

That’s just fine with Adu.

“I love it like this,” Adu said of the decreased attention. “I’m able to concentrate on playing and not worry about all the other stuff that is going on.”

Not long ago, the 15-year-old was a one-man marketing machine. As soon as he was selected with the top pick in January’s Major League Soccer SuperDraft and subsequently became the highest-paid player in the 9-year-old league at $500,000, the Adu media blitz was unleashed.

“Are you ready for some Freddy?” is just one of many slogans MLS used in promoting its youngest player ever. Adu was just 14 when he was drafted.

The Potomac resident generated unprecedented attention for a league devoid of stars. There were spreads in Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair. He appeared on “60 Minutes” and “Late Show With David Letterman,” where he delighted the host with his ball tricks.

Adu filmed a Sierra Mist commercial with soccer great Pele — to whom he is frequently compared — and holds a $1million endorsement deal with Nike. He shot a Campbell’s Soup ad that is currently running on almost every network. There was a spot on MTV’s “Total Request Live.” The British television networks BBC and ITN showed up at practices to do in-depth feature stories.

Where did it all go? It seems nobody is talking about Freddy these days.

“The obvious facts are that the season is almost over and there are other issues going on in D.C., like baseball,” said David Carter, a Los Angeles-based sports industry consultant and university lecturer. “A lot of the story was already told. It was a movie premiere marketing approach — the world knew he was bursting on the scene. [The lack of recent exposure] is no indictment of his ability.”

Last Sunday, Adu successfully completed his first MLS regular season with two assists against the MetroStars and drew four yellow cards against United’s rival. Adu finished the season with five goals and three assists.

“People go after him, there is no question about it,” United coach Peter Nowak said of Sunday’s game. “He’s fast, and sometimes he’s faster than the other players think. That’s why he drew the fouls and the cards.”

At the beginning of the season, Adu’s unprecedented hype created lofty expectations. When Nowak didn’t play him much at the start of the season, questions were raised that maybe Adu wasn’t ready to compete at the professional level. But in recent months, Adu clearly has shown he belongs. Adu, however, will be the first to tell you the pressure of being the face of MLS might have contributed to his sporadic play at the beginning of the season.

“It drained me — I wasn’t used to it yet,” Adu said. “If you give me that now, at the beginning of next season, I’ll do much better with that because now I’ll at least know what to expect. When I came here, I hadn’t really had that much pressure and that much stuff going on at the same time and trying to play at the same time. So, I didn’t know how to handle it.”

Kevin Payne, United’s president, contends Adu’s whirlwind promotional tour in the spring did not adversely affect his play.

“There was no point at which we said, ’Oh, we’re going to back off now on things, we’re going to do less,’” Payne said. “I don’t think he gets terribly distracted by the off-field stuff. There were times when he wasn’t playing a lot where he was a little bit uncomfortable with all the media attention he is getting because he is still a competitor. It bothered him a little that people wanted to talk to him a lot, but he wasn’t playing a lot. He still dealt with it very gracefully.

“I don’t think anybody should draw a conclusion that there was less activity for him off the field and therefore he became a better player. That would, I believe, be completely erroneous.”

However, Payne is the first to concede Freddy mania has calmed down considerably.

“Certainly around here, [the hype has] become a little more routine. He’s a member of our team, which is the way it really should be,” Payne said. “He’s not some kind of a freak — he’s just a young player, an unusually young player, who is a member of our team. There still is a big impact when we go to other markets.”

Thanks to Adu, United established an MLS record this season as the top road draw in league history by averaging 23,686 fans.

“It’s been a breakthrough season, and when Freddy generated interest in Major League Soccer, the league took on a different flair,” Carter said. “The question becomes how far will the league fall when he ends up playing in Europe in the next couple of years?”

Adu, who along with midfielder Brian Carroll were the only United players to appear in every game, said the season was a valuable learning experience.

“Pretty much no matter who you are or what people say you are and all that stuff, you can’t go somewhere and not be fully prepared for it and expect to do well,” Adu said. “I came here and I was totally not ready for this and that hurt me in the beginning. It took a long time before I got things going.

“It took some public humiliation on myself after the Dallas game [a 5-1 loss July 24], and I ran my mouth. After that, I sat down and thought about everything that was going on and pretty much settled down and started working real hard to achieve my goals. In the second half of the season, I get three goals and three assists. That’s way better than I did in the first half.”

Indeed, Adu has come a long way since his turbulent start to the season. In Sunday’s 3-2 victory over the MetroStars, he looked like a polished professional playing left-flank midfield instead of a person who is too young to obtain a driver’s license.

“There was so much put upon me to do,” Adu said. “It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy at all. I’m just a kid. I just want to have fun and be a kid.”