Freddy Adu, Julian Green, Gedion Zelalem: 10 US wonderkids that never materialised

In January, the MLS’s Real Salt Lake made national headlines for signing 14-year old Axel Kei from their academy to their senior squad as a homegrown player.

With the move, Kei becomes the youngest player in American professional sport's history, 156 days younger than Freddy Adu when he signed with DC United in 2004.

Now, the name Freddy Adu evokes a cringe when spoken in US football circles. He represents dreams of finally achieving greatness on the world football stage, only to come crashing back down to mediocrity.

In honour of Kei’s historic signing, let’s take a look beyond Adu at 10 American wonderkids that showed loads of promise, yet for whatever reason, could not deliver.

Flores flamed out harder than nearly all of these names. Flores showed promise in 2015 when he drastically improved over the course of the CONCACAF U20 Championship, but he never made another US appearance after that tournament.

A shame, considering much of his youth was with Borussia Dortmund’s academy. Like many other names on this list, he was an attacking midfielder that just couldn’t finish on the attack. Combine that lack of production with two large injury absences, including a knee injury in 2018 that forced him to retire at age 22, and you have a recipe for disappointment.

A consistent member of the US backline, although Yedlin has accumulated 71 caps at 28 years of age, his club career has been somewhat lacking. A product of Seattle Sounders FC’s academy, he spent two seasons in Seattle before a move to Tottenham for £2.34m. He only touched the field once with Spurs, but a successful loan season that year to Sunderland allowed Tottenham to sell him to Newcastle that next summer at double what they paid for him.

From there, Yedlin