Freddy Adu, ex-MLS star dubbed the 'next Pele' has signed for fishing village side Osterlen FF

One-time wonderkid and former MLS star Freddy Adu has made an unexpected return to football by joining a third-tier Swedish team that is based in a small fishing village with a population of just 400 people.

Adu made his MLS debut aged just 14 and was tipped to reach the very top of the game but he never hit the heights his prodigious talent deserved or demanded.

Now aged 31, the attacking midfielder reappeared on Wednesday after two years out by signing for Osterlen FF, which is based in the town of Brantevik in the far south east of Sweden.

The move is the latest in a career that has spanned nine countries, taking in 15 clubs on three continents during 17 years.

The signing was accompanied by no fanfare with US journalist, Ives Galarcep, breaking the news on Twitter.

And Adu welcomed the deal in a couple of tweets.

‘Missed this sport so much and just happy to have the opportunity to be playing again, one step at a time,’ Adu said in his Tweet after joining Osterlen, who are currently top of the third tier in the Scandinavian country.

'Skipped a lot of steps in the past but now I get a chance to do it right. I’m excited and never been more ready!’

It was a far cry from how it all began when he became the youngest player ever to sign a professional contract in the US as he joined DC United aged 14, after he was picked in the 2014 MLS Superdraft.

Still just a teenager, he became the youngest MLS player when he came on as a substitute in a game against the San Jose Earthquakes, and then became the youngest scorer in MLS history, netting in a 3-2 loss to the MetroStars.

He was capped by the US at the age of 16, going on to earn 17 caps, with two goals, and had commentators rubbing their hands in excitement, predicting Adu would be the next Pele.

As his star rose stateside, Adu was linked with moves to Chelsea and Manchester United and was even pictured in United's training gear at Carrington in 2006, but he did not have a work permit and youngster returned home.

Instead, Adu signed for Real Salt Lake in 2007 before moving to Benfica in Portugal later that year for a fee of £1.35million.

However, he never realised his potential, or lived up to the expectation that his youthful emergence had created.

He struggled to make a lasting impression in Portugal and headed out on several loan spells, including to French side Monaco in 2008.

Adu returned to the United States in 2011 with Philadelphia Union and was there for two years, making 35 appearances and scoring seven times.

However, he was on his way again in 2013 and has since played for Bahia, a second-tier Brazilian side, Jagodina, a Serbian SuperLig club and KuPS in Finland's Premier League, who sent him on loan to KuFu 98 in 2015.

In a bizarre incident in 2017, Adu was signed on trial for Polish club Sandecja Nowy Sacz, only for the coach, Radoslaw Mrockowski, to declare: ‘This is not my idea.’

Before adding: ‘I just heard someone picked him up from the airport.’

It didn't work out.

Adu found his way back to the US and linked up with Tampa Bay Rowdies before moving on again to Murkowski the Las Vegas Lights in the USL Championship, where he ended a three-year goal drought, scoring in June 2018 on his 29th birthday.

However, that strike did not herald a return to form and Adu drifted out of the game just before Christmas that year. He went on to coach young players in the US city of Baltimore before re-emerging in Sweden, with Osterlen.