The transfer deadline produced two moves which will shake the world little, but rocked the US national team boat. The good news: Freddy Adu and Heath Pearce appear primed to get minutes. The bad news: they must bravely navigate the backwaters of Europe.
Heath Pearce signed for Turkish Club Bursaspor, which my sources assure is a club which takes it’s soccer more seriously than the English phonetic pronunciation of its name. The club’s official name is “Bursaspor Kulubu” and they also have a volleyball club. The club was founded in 1963 and has consistently been in the top-flight for almost 40 years, but was relegated in 2004 and recently made the climb back up in 2006.
Bursaspor’s sole title was a 1986 Turkey Cup Title, coincidentally the same year they were relegated. For more info on Bursaspor, check out their English language website.
Freddy Adu‘s career has gone the way of a car title loan, or rather, horribly bad. He finds himself on loan at Belenenses. But don’t worry, because Adu is excited by this fresh challenge. Somehow I’m not convinced.
Luckily, Freddy will not have to change residences as Belenses is located in Lisbon. While Belenses did win the league title in 1945, they narrowly escaped relegation last year. I wish the Portuguese word for relegation was literally translated as “relegaCOAO”, in part because the “oao” sounds so cool. Aside from that, very little positives.
To follow Adu’s next chapter in his Portugal mystery novel, check out this English language page. The working title was “What Went Wrong,” but has recently been changed to “Did Anything Go Right?”
Given the perilous state of both careers, I am happy they are playing for a soccer club and getting a paycheck. But what do you think? What if the worst case scenario occurs and they struggle for minutes at relegation-doomed clubs in second tier European leagues? Is the MLS escape button primed to be pushed?
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