14 year-old star signs for DC United

Freddy Adu, the much-heralded 'soccer-phenomenon' has turned his back on the likes of Manchester Utd, Chelsea and PSV Eindhoven to sign a six-year contract for the United States Major League Soccer (MLS) side DC United.

Although Adu is still only 14 years of age, he is already playing for the USA National under-17 side and attracted interest from a host of top European clubs after impressive performances during the under-17 World Championship Finals in Finland through the summer.

Adu moved to the United States from Ghana with his family in 1997 and started making national headlines when he signed a lucrative endorsement contract with Nike, which precludes him from playing in college in the United States.

Now comes the latest announcement that MLS club DC United (Adu's hometown team) have signed the 14 year-old, circumventing the normal annual draft-pick process, in which basically, the worst team in the whole league gets the first choice of available new players.

Dallas Burn were scheduled to receive the first draft pick for the new season, but a deal was struck by the MLS governing body, which incidentally negotiates all MLS player contracts, so that Adu will be assigned to DC United and in return Dallas Burn will now be provided with a "major player allocation".

Imagine a similar scenario to the USA system of the 'draft-pick' in the Football League, with Wayne Rooney having to sign for (currently) Carlisle Utd.

Perugia back in the news

Italian Serie A club Perugia just can't seem to stay out of the spotlight for more than a few days, the latest headlines concern the positive drug test of Saadi Gaddafi (son of Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi) who was found to have nandrolone in his system.

The 28-year-old player, who only joined Perugia this summer, still hadn't played a first-team game for the Italian club when he tested positive for the performance-enhancing steroid. "I was surprised when I heard the news," said Gaddafi, "There will be a comprehensive investigation of the past few months when I visited several doctors in Italy, Germany and in Libya to discover which doctor gave me this substance that appeared in the test."

Hmmn, any bets on which country's doctor it was?