[AMERICANS ABROAD] Freddy Adu, who spent the 2007-08 season with Portugal’s Benfica, for which he appeared in only 11 games, may be headed to French first division club Monaco, whose president is French-American Jerome de Bontin. French and Dutch media also report that Monaco is making a $13 million offer to Dutch club Heerenveen for U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley.
De Bontin, who attended Amherst College and has been involved in American soccer for 30 years, took the presidency earlier this year at calling of Monaco’s Prince Albert, his longtime friend and teammate at Amherst.
De Bontin has been serving on U.S. Soccer’s technical committee that U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati formed after the 2006 World Cup to evaluate the nation’s approach to youth player development and coaching education. Upon his appointment to the Monaco presidency, De Bontin said he planned for Monaco to develop close ties with American soccer.
Adu, 19, played three seasons for D.C. United, then spent the first half of the 2007 season with Real Salt Lake before joining Benfica. While his playing time was sparse in Portugal, he starred in the U.S. U-23s’ successful qualifying campaign for this summer’s Olympic Games. He also established himself with the full national team, playing in six U.S. games in 2008, including the World Cup qualifiers against Barbados.
Bradley, the 20-year-old son of U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley, led Heerenveen in scoring last season with 15 goals and is a regular on the U.S. national team, for which he has earned 21 caps.
Monaco currently has three of the top young prospects in France — Jeremy Menez, Serge Gakpe and Djamel Bakar — but the club languished on the edge of the relegation zone before finishing 12th in the 20-team Ligue 1 in 2007-08.
Monaco has won seven French league titles since 1961 and five French Cup titles and reached the final of the 2004 UEFA Champions League, where it lost to Porto, but it has struggled in recent years.
Monaco has produced some of the greatest players in recent French history. Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet, Emmanuel Petit and Lilian Thuram, all members of the 1998 World Cup championship team, got their professional starts at Monaco.
Foreign stars who have played at Monaco include former European Player of the Year George Weah, German star Juergen Klinsmann, Englishman Glenn Hoddle, Mexican star Rafael Marquez and current D.C. United midfielder Marcelo Gallardo. Weah, Marquez and Gallardo all made their European debuts at Monaco.