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9 year old phenom...pro athlete soon?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/soccer/01/27/phenom.ap/index.html?cnn=yes


Boy wonder

Brazilian phenom, 9, catching attention of pro teams

Posted: Thursday January 27, 2005 3:34PM; Updated: Thursday January 27, 2005 5:35PM

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Manchester United has asked for scouting tapes of 9-year-old Jean Carlos Chera.


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SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- At this rate, sonograms will become a soccer recruiting tool pretty soon.

Jean Carlos Chera, a 9-year-old who is 4-foot-6, is attracting interest from Manchester United and other top European teams. Chera, who weighs 77 pounds, currently plays for the youth teams of Associacao Desportiva Atletica, a small club in the southern Brazilian state of Parana.

"Seven or eight European clubs have already contacted us to know more about Jean," team president Adilson Batista Prado said in a telephone interview Thursday. "They want to know what he is all about, and I tell them he's a phenomenon, probably the best player to come out of Brazil."

Prado and team officials would not identify all the clubs interested in Jean, but confirmed that representatives of Manchester United have asked for videotapes of his matches.

Prado said teams from Portugal, France and Germany have made contact, and local media identified FC Porto as one of the teams.

The club said the European clubs haven't made official offers yet, but some have asked for permission to send representatives, and others have invited the midfielder and his family to go to Europe.

"He still needs to be a kid," said Prado, who does not allow Jean to talk to reporters.

Jean began to attract attention after the club put videos with highlights of Jean's matches on its Web site. In the videos, Jean is seen scoring goals from midfield, dribbling past several defenders and playing among 13- and 14-year-olds.

After the videos were posted, the site's page views nearly tripled and some of them had to be removed to keep the site from crashing, the club said.

Two years ago, Manchester and Inter Milan were among top clubs that expressed interest in then 14-year-old Freddy Adu, who signed Major League Soccer instead. European clubs generally are not allowed to use players from outside the European Union on their first teams until they turn 18.
 
Give me one good slide tackle on the kid and his only future will be in Menudo. Hell, I'm sure I could not even chase him down.

I guess I had better start working with my 2 year old. It is obviously too late for my 4 year old.
 
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It's funny that American kids start playing soccer at just as young an age as they do anywhere else in the world, but you never see a prodigy quite like this get developed in our country. Wonder why things work out that way....Adu , BTW, is originally from Ghana. Could cultural influence really have that much sway on someone as young as 7,8, or 9 years old? It must.
 
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HabaneroBuck said:
It's funny that American kids start playing soccer at just as young an age as they do anywhere else in the world, but you never see a prodigy quite like this get developed in our country. Wonder why things work out that way....Adu , BTW, is originally from Ghana. Could cultural influence really have that much sway on someone as young as 7,8, or 9 years old? It must.
Our best athletes play basketball, football, or baseball. If someone like Vick or Lebron had done nothing but play sucker :p their whole life they would be a "prodigy". Bottom line you don't get paid as well in the MLS. Unless you want to go play in Europe stick to the big 3.
 
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Originally Posted by HabaneroBuck
It's funny that American kids start playing soccer at just as young an age as they do anywhere else in the world, but you never see a prodigy quite like this get developed in our country. Wonder why things work out that way....Adu , BTW, is originally from Ghana. Could cultural influence really have that much sway on someone as young as 7,8, or 9 years old? It must.

Our best athletes play basketball, football, or baseball. If someone like Vick or Lebron had done nothing but play sucker their whole life they would be a "prodigy". Bottom line you don't get paid as well in the MLS. Unless you want to go play in Europe stick to the big 3.

Regardless of any of that... the kid is a freak.... One kid in Brazil... One kid in Ghana... 2 in 5 billion.... we're playing the gene pool/parents/whatever game before the cultural influence game. I bet this kid would make a hell of a Pop Warner player.

Dunno how good of a Soccer player LeBron would've been... maybe a GK.... in Brazil, he still would have played basketball, probably.... but 9 year olds don't think "Stick to the Big Three"

I see kids quit soccer... good players too... and take up skateboarding and crap like that.... at older ages than 9... they don't care about Who makes more between Tony Hawk and Freddie Adu....
 
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What I like about him is he's so balanced and fluid. He's 5-6 years ahead of the typical learning curve when it comes to that. The great ones look effortless and this kid has that. I've seen some stuff on Adu at that age but this kid is better at motion and control.

FWIW, I played junior olympics and I was on the top team in the country in HS and I've coached and he's every bit as good as any 15-16 year old we have here..minus the size and speed of course. I'd like to see more video of him doing fundamentals, juggling, etc..
 
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thanks for the link to the video...I was looking around the internet for that yesterday but all the sites that posted it had used up their bandwith due to the influx of so many users wanting to get a look at this kid...but yeah, all you can say after watching that is wow...the kid is fricken 9 years old. Lets get the crew to sign him.
 
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GoofyBuckeye said:
What I like about him is he's so balanced and fluid. He's 5-6 years ahead of the typical learning curve when it comes to that. The great ones look effortless and this kid has that. I've seen some stuff on Adu at that age but this kid is better at motion and control.


Agreed. He looks years older. If he continues to develop and really starts using his right leg he will be dominant.
 
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