W hat does Freddy Adu's future hold?

A learner's permit, driver's license and maybe some R-rated movies. For now though, he'll have to be happy with playing professional soccer for DC United of Major League Soccer.

Adu, the 14-year-old phenom, recently signed with MLS. His contract should be a nice addition to his allowance.

Adu starred on the U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team and was courted by several European clubs including Manchester United, Chelsea and PSV Eindhoven. But he chose to stay close to his Potomac, Md., home to play with DC United.

Adu moved to the United States from Ghana when he was 8. Since that time he has been turning heads and embarrassing defenders. He's widely recognized as the best young soccer player in the world.

And he decided not to sign with traditional soccer powerhouses in Europe, where soccer rules. To give this scenario some perspective, Adu's signing by DC United is nearly as astonishing as if LeBron James would have signed with a European team instead of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Soccer players make more money in Europe than in the United States. Soccer's popularity in Europe dwarfs its popularity in the United States. By a lot. Take the popularity of football, baseball and basketball in the United States. Total it up and you might approach soccer's popularity across the Atlantic.

A signing as monumental as Adu's makes you wonder what type of impact it will have on soccer in the United States. As sad as it is for soccer fans here, the answer is probably not that much.

At least that's what history would say.

Just look at the 2002 World Cup. The United States' squad did surprisingly well by advancing to the quarterfinals. They got out of a tough opening group, which included Portugal, one of the best teams in the world. Then they beat Mexico, their soccer-crazed neighbors to the south, to advance to the final eight.

Americans were excited — but not that excited. True soccer fans would go to bars at 4 a.m. to watch the United States play its games in host countries China and South Korea.

But the success of the team was rarely the lead story on newscasts or in newspapers. The American media were more concerned with who the Yankees were going to sign before the trade deadline and Tiger Woods' latest tournament victory.

Still, hopeful American soccer enthusiasts thought the United States' World Cup run would be the perfect event to bring soccer into the mainstream in the United States. People said the United States just needed to show it could be competitive with the rest of the world, and then soccer would be better received at home.

Well, they did show they were competitive.

But when was the last time you, the average sports fan, heard a big fuss made over American soccer? Not since the World Cup.

So along comes the freakishly talented 14-year old in Freddy Adu, and already I've heard whispers among soccer fans and others that this is just what the United States needs to put soccer on the map.

Sorry, folks. It's already on the map, just not the map of the United States.

And it will likely never be there. Like it or not, soccer is still considered by many Americans as a pansy sport — a game kids play because their parents don't want them to get hurt playing football.

This attitude doesn't figure to change anytime soon. So American soccer fans should just enjoy watching Freddy play and bid Adu to the notion that he will change soccer's status in the United States.

Josh Purse is a junior in communications. He can be reached at sports@dailyillini.com.