Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford confirmed the rumor Monday that forward Phil Kessel had vetoed a recent trade.

The GM did not name the team involved, but it had been widely reported that the Penguins had a deal on the table with the Minnesota Wild in which Kessel and Jack Johnson would go out for Jason Zucker and Victor Rask.

"In Phil's situation, he was just part of a decision ... where we were trying to retool and we had a chance to get a good player, but it doesn't necessarily mean he has to be traded," Rutherford told 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh. "He's been a really good player for us. We wouldn't have won the Cups without him. He's an impact player; he will be for a few more years. So we'll see how that plays out."

Kessel is coming off a season in which he had 27 goals and 82 points -- good numbers to be sure, but the 31-year-old has to shine on offense to overcome some of his defensive shortcomings. He had 34 goals and 92 points the year before.

After being swept by the Islanders in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Penguins are looking to get younger and faster around star Sidney Crosby. They traded defenseman Olli Maatta to the Blackhawks for young forward Dominik Kahun this week.

Rutherford intimated that he had put together the trade without worrying that Minnesota was not on Kessel's list of approved destinations.

"The biggest thing from a team point of view, you can't have the player controlling the trade because if you do it's not going to work out for the team, so at this point and time I view it that Phil will return with the team," Rutherford said.

"I'm not actively pushing to trade him at this point. If someone comes along with a deal that makes sense, we'll take a look at it, just like most of the other players."

Rutherford didn't fault Kessel for exercising his contractual rights.

"Minnesota was never on his list. To that point, he's a player that deserved to get the position he's in where he had a no-trade and pick eight teams that he would go to and otherwise have some say in whether he'd go to other teams," Rutherford said. "I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary here. He's exercising his right. Obviously it's frustrating for the team when you feel that the trade we were going to make was the right thing for the Penguins, but Phil didn't do anything wrong."

Asked whether Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin or Patric Hornqvist could be traded, Rutherford paused for a while before answering.

"The guys that you mentioned are not guys I'm pushing to trade or feel that I have to trade from the Penguins. They've been great players, they still are and they're the kind of guys you win championships with," Rutherford told the radio station. "I didn't say I was going to actively push to trade the guys you just mentioned, but I didn't say that I wouldn't. The best example of all, people hear this over and over, Gretzky was traded, you know, one of the greatest players of all time. Sometimes there's certain packages [that] come along that you have to look at, and that's why I kept that door open."

The San Jose Sharks and defenseman Erik Karlsson, 29, have reportedly agreed to a deal on an eight-year contract, that will play him more than $11 million per season.

The term and average annual value raised some eyebrows around the league, and the end of the Karlsson Sweepstakes has set dominoes falling in a number of different directions. You've got questions on the deal and its aftermath, and we've got answers:

Was this a surprise?

Somewhat. The Sharks had a few things going for them in the pursuit of Karlsson. Financially, they were in a great position: No one was going to outbid them for Karlsson, as GM Doug Wilson had the full backing from an open-wallet ownership to aggressively bring him back. Plus, the Sharks were the only team that could offer him eight years; as an unrestricted free agent, the highest another team could go was seven years due to the current CBA. He clearly enjoyed his time in San Jose, both from a lifestyle perspective and in bonding with teammates. And while the Sharks are very much a veteran team, their window to win the Stanley Cup remains open.

The main reason many thought Karlsson could leave was geography, with he and his wife desiring to move back East. There was also the thought that Karlsson might like to play with Victor Hedman in Tampa or Henrik Lundqvist in New York.

So kudos to San Jose: They had a year to sell him on the organization, and they sold him. Although as one former Sharks player told ESPN this week: "San Jose sells itself."

How does that money stack up?

Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings was the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL before this contract, making $11 million against the cap over the next eight seasons, signing that deal last July 1. Doughty made news in 2017 when he said he'd talk with Karlsson to "see what money he's looking for." Turns out it was Doughty that set the market.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said that Karlsson's deal would be for the same percentage of the cap as Doughty's, who was at 13.8 percent when he signed. That would mean a cap hit around $11.45 million annually for Karlsson, which would put him third in the NHL behind Connor McDavid ($12.5 million) and Auston Matthews ($11.634 million), both of whom are centers and significantly younger than Karlsson. Bob McKenzie of TSN sees the AAV around $11.5 million.

Karlsson is 29 and battled through injuries in the last year. Isn't this risky?

There's nothing the Sharks can do about age. There was something they could do about his wonky groin, which was an injury he suffered during the season and that severely hampered him as the playoffs progressed. He had surgery to repair it on May 31, and immediately started to rehab it.

"All I know is it's not going to be anything that will be a problem moving forward," Karlsson said after the Sharks' season ended in the Western Conference final, to eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis. "I'm going to be able to have a normal summer with training and everything and getting ready. That's great. It's just unfortunate it happened when it did."

Again, fears about his fragility are legitimate -- he played 124 out of a possible 164 games in the past two seasons -- especially if these groin issues are systemic, given that skating has always been his greatest asset. He'll be 37 at the end of this contract.

That said, is it worth the risk for the Sharks?

Absolutely. Look, the window is now for San Jose. Joe Pavelski, a 34-year-old unrestricted free agent, is expected back. Joe Thornton, 39, is expected back. Brent Burns is 34. Marc-Edouard Vlasic is 32. Logan Couture is 30. This team was good enough to get to the conference final with a diminished Karlsson. Given their roster, and the improvements of conference rivals, having Karlsson back on the roster exponentially increases the chances they can get there again.

In some ways, Wilson's vision was never realized despite Burns and Karlsson gobbling up 55 minutes per game between them in the playoffs. Yes, the term is scary. But to get the player, they had to hand eight years to him. And in getting the player, that elusive first Stanley Cup may still be in reach for the Sharks.

What's their cap situation now?

It will require some maneuvering. They had 15 players signed and $24,042,583 in cap space before Karlsson came back, according to Cap Friendly. If Thornton and Pavelski come back as well, that'll eat into the space, but more importantly will only give San Jose nine forwards under contract. Among the RFAs that need new deals: Forwards Kevin Labanc, Timo Meier and Dylan Gambrell. Among the team's other UFAs: Joonas Donskoi and Gustav Nyquist. One assumes both of the latter are gone unless they agree to a deep discount. (And in Nyquist's case, that would solely be to challenge for a Cup in San Jose.)

More than likely, the Sharks might have to open some space by dealing either Brenden Dillon ($3.27 million) or Justin Braun ($3.8 million). Wilson is going to have to make this work somehow; most likely, other teams are going to benefit from this cap crunch.

Which teams does this signing most affect from a free-agent perspective?

It's hard to know exactly what the derby for Karlsson would have looked like this summer. We know the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars were both in pursuit of Karlsson before the Ottawa Senators traded him to the Sharks last summer. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Karlsson were paired ever since he trounced around the city with Victor Hedman -- dressed as pirates! -- during the 2018 All-Star weekend. Financially, it would have been a challenge to get him in, however. The Rangers had also been rumored as a possibility. One assumes some of these teams will redouble their efforts to land someone like Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba.

But in a weird way, the signing affects Ottawa more than anyone else.

Wait, how does this affect the Senators?

The Senators actually get a second-round pick in the 2021 NHL draft since the Sharks signed Karlsson. Incredibly, that pick would have upgraded to a first-rounder had the Sharks made the Stanley Cup Final this year -- the Senators were just two San Jose wins away from that.

How does this deal affect the summer trade and free-agent market?

With apologies to Tyler Myers and Alexander Edler, there isn't an unrestricted free agent defenseman anywhere near Karlsson's talent and impact. So if teams are looking for that kind of player, the trade route is the only way to go.

One imagines the price tag (and the market) for Jets RFA defenseman Jacob Trouba has grown. One imagines business might be picking up for teams like the Anaheim Ducks, Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes, who all have a surplus of defensemen from which to deal.

How does this affect other defensemen?

There are a few big-name defensemen on the runway for new deals, facing unrestricted free agency in summer 2020: Alex Pietrangelo of the Blues (current cap hit of $6.5 million), Torey Krug of the Bruins ($5.25 million), Justin Faulk of the Hurricanes ($4,833,333) and, perhaps most notably, Roman Josi of the Predators, who has been underpaid at a $4 million in AAV since 2013.

While these defensemen may not command north of $11 million annually, the rising tide of Karlsson and Doughty should lift some boats.

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Luis Suarez has said he lost three kilograms (6.6 lbs) during his recovery from knee surgery in order to be fit for Uruguay's Copa America opener.

Medical and Barcelona club sources gave ESPN FC details of the rehab process, which began a couple of days after the May 9 surgery, performed in Barcelona by renowned knee specialist Ramon Cugat.

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Suarez returned to the field 38 days after arthroscopic surgery to repair a meniscus injury in his right knee and showed no signs of rust as he scored one and assisted another in the 4-0 hammering of Ecuador in Copa America -- his first match since Barcelona's 4-0 loss against Liverpool at Anfield in the Champions League semifinals on May 7.

"I lost three kilograms," Suarez told ESPN FC on Sunday night after the win over Ecuador at Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte. "We did all kinds of exercises to regain mobility.

"I worked with the first team nutritionist we have [at Barcelona]. I have shed some kilos, and now I feel lighter."

Suarez rested and iced the knee for a couple of days after the surgery, and then began the recovery process at the Ciutat Esportiva club facilities under the supervision of Ricard Pruna, head of the Barcelona medical services, and first team physio Juan Brau, who oversaw the training on grass and sand to strengthen the right quad, a team source said.

"The recovery time is shorter because it was the internal meniscus," a medical source with direct knowledge of the Suarez procedure said. "It's not about whether he ran more or less.

"The recovery time for the surgery he had, if there are no medical setbacks, can be as quick as three weeks, and he was out for five weeks."

Barcelona agreed to the surgery at the request of Suarez, who was keen to play in his second Copa America with Uruguay. He had been bothered by knee soreness and cartilage issues for some time, although the striker said in a press release that he injured the meniscus in the Champions League semifinals against Liverpool.

This is the second time in his career that Suarez has recovered from a meniscus injury just in time to play an international tournament with Uruguay. In 2014, the then Liverpool striker had left knee surgery 24 days before the Celeste's first World Cup game in Brazil.

He remained on the bench in a surprising 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica, but started five days later to score twice in a 2-1 win over England.

"Luis always gives maximum effort, whether it's in a match, a training session or whenever he has a task in front of him," the club source said. "He always delivers."

Suarez scored 25 goals for Barcelona in all competitions last season and was one of the players with the most minutes (4,132) on the team.

Paris Saint-Germain chairman and CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi has warned record signing Neymar that he only wants players who are "willing to give everything for the shirt."

The Qatari supremo, who has already hinted preferential treatment is over for the Brazil international, pulled no punches in his view on Neymar's commitment to the Ligue 1 giants' project after L'Equipe had reported PSG could cash in if a big offer arrives after growing tired of him.

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"I want players willing to give everything for the shirt, the club and join for the project," Al-Khelaifi told France Football. "Those who do not want that, or do not understand, we will see each other and talk.

"Of course, there are contracts to be respected, but the priority now is total commitment to the project. Nobody forced Neymar to sign for us. Nobody pushed him here. He knowingly signed up for this project."

Neymar's strike partner Kylian Mbappe recently said he wanted more responsibility at PSG, and Al-Khelaifi added he has spoken to the World Cup winner about these comments. Club sources have confirmed to ESPN FC that PSG have no intention of selling Neymar or Mbappe this summer and that both will be expected to buy into the rejuvenation of the club's project.

The French champions' president also expressed his certainty that the Mbappe will still be at Parc des Princes next campaign.

"Kylian wants to be more involved in the PSG project," Al-Khelaifi said. "To grow with the team and the club.

"I explained to him that you do not ask for responsibility, you go and get it. Sometimes, you even have to take it. Do not wait for it, force it. As he is very intelligent, I am sure that he understood. I am not 100% sure but 200% sure that he will be here next season. I will not be letting this crazy player go."

Al-Khelaifi also said he was the first to blame for the ill discipline last season and vowed to embrace his responsibilities.

"We all lacked character and authority," he said. "I am the first to recognise it in myself.

"I am the first culprit. I do not want to hide or blame others, such as the player or the coach. If last season did not work, it was my fault first. That will change."

As reported by ESPN FC sources back in February, sporting director Antero Henrique had been on the way out for some time and Al-Khelaifi confirmed it was not a rushed decision to part with the Portuguese.

"The idea [of replacing Henrique with Leonardo ] did not just come to me overnight," he said. "Gradual reflection eventually matured.

"It was time to change. At a certain point, all clubs need new impetus. We could not go on like that."

Leonardo has returned as a figure of authority among the PSG hierarchy, and Al-Khelaifi backed the Brazilian to run a tighter ship than his predecessor.

"Some discipline needs to return to the squad," he said. "If a player makes a mistake, Leo will make it clear that the club is well above them.

"The players will have greater responsibility than before. I want our players to be proud to wear our shirt and not to play only when it suits them."

ESPN FC's France correspondent Julien Laurens contributed to this report.

Matthijs de Ligt has emerged as the hottest property in Europe during this summer's transfer window after captaining Ajax to the Champions League semifinals at just 19 years old.

The centre-back, who is also a regular in Ronald Koeman's Netherlands team, has been mainly tracked by Barcelona, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, with speculation also linking him to Juventus, Manchester City, Liverpool and Bayern Munich. De Ligt has said he will now decide his next move while on holiday this month, but with the world at his feet and Europe's top clubs all queuing up to sign him, which would be the best move in terms of progressing his career?

ESPN FC has weighed up the pros and cons of each potential buyer.

THE CLUBS CHASING DE LIGT

BARCELONA

PROS: First of all, you get Lionel Messi as a teammate, and that is a huge selling point, but with Gerard Pique now 32, Barca need to rebuild at the back.

De Ligt could develop into the kingpin of the Barcelona defence for the next 10 years and moving this summer means he could also take his game to another level by playing alongside Pique for at least one season. At Camp Nou, De Ligt would be virtually guaranteed to win big trophies and play in the Champions League every year alongside his Ajax and Netherlands teammate, Frenkie de Jong.

CONS: De Ligt has shown himself to be vulnerable on the turn when being attacked by quick, nimble forwards, and La Liga is not short on attacking players who could expose his shortcomings.

There would be no guarantees of regular football at Camp Nou either, with the likes of Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet all capable of keeping him out of the team. At right-back, where he can also operate, he would be up against the impressive Nelson Semedo. There are also long-term questions about how well Barca are equipped to succeed without Messi. The Champions League defeat against Liverpool was a humbling loss and it showed that even with Messi, Barca might be set for a period of transition.

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PSG

PROS: Sources have told ESPN that PSG have moved ahead of Barcelona in the race to sign De Ligt, who knows he would win a stack of domestic medals with the Qatari-owned French champions. Learning the game alongside Thiago Silva would also appeal to De Ligt, who would be confident of regular football both in Ligue 1 and the Champions League. While he will not be short of big offers this summer, a move to PSG would perhaps be the most lucrative of all.

CONS: From a football perspective, De Ligt would not be playing in one of Europe's top leagues and he would risk his development stalling due to a lack of competitiveness in France. Ligue 1 lacks the kudos of the Premier League or La Liga and PSG are also a club that can't match their European rivals when it comes to history or tradition either.

Neymar and Kylian Mbappe have both gone to Paris for big money in recent years but could depart for a greater challenge outside the one-horse race of French football.

MAN UNITED

PROS: A move to Old Trafford would be hugely lucrative for De Ligt, and he would go there knowing he would play every week and have the defence built around him.

United are in a difficult place right now but they are still one of the three biggest clubs in the world, alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona, and De Ligt could be enticed by the challenge of leading the team back to the summit of the game. For a player blessed with such imposing physical attributes, the Premier League would be perfectly suited to his game.

CONS: United appear to be locked in a downward spiral, with the team facing a lengthy rebuild after six years of bad decisions since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. Domestically, Liverpool and Manchester City have left United trailing in their wake and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team are not even in the Champions League next season.

A move to Old Trafford right now makes little sense for De Ligt, although at 19, he could spend two years at United and still be able to get out with his best years ahead of him if the move failed to work out.

MAN CITY:

PROS: Vincent Kompany's decision to leave City for a move into management with Anderlecht has opened up a vacancy for a commanding centre-back at the Etihad.

The opportunity to work under coach Pep Guardiola would be another attraction for De Ligt and, with City at the peak of their powers, he could look forward to winning major honours in the blue half of Manchester. City have become a major force under Abu Dhabi ownership and the Dutchman would be joining one of Europe's most powerful clubs.

CONS: The struggles of John Stones at City, who has fallen out of favour under Guardiola despite arriving to great fanfare in 2016, might be a warning to De Ligt that the City manager's patience does not always give a young player time to develop.

There would also be concerns over whether De Ligt's playing style would fit into Guardiola's high-intensity approach. His upbringing at passing football specialists Ajax would help but he might not be what the manager is looking for.

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LIVERPOOL

PROS: The prospect of forging a defensive partnership with Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk at Anfield would be a compelling one for De Ligt. And, as Champions League winners, Liverpool can offer him the chance to sign for the best team in Europe and one that seems to be on the brink of a successful new era under Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool are a young, exciting squad and De Ligt could take himself, and the team, to a new level if he moved to Anfield.

CONS: It's difficult to find a downside of moving to Liverpool right now, although the one area where they may struggle to compete with their rivals is on a financial level. De Ligt could guarantee bigger wages elsewhere.

Despite winning the Champions League, Liverpool have not won the league title since 1990, and if Manchester City continue to dominate, the defender might find it easier to win major honours elsewhere.

BAYERN MUNICH

PROS: Playing for the biggest and wealthiest club in Germany would guarantee De Ligt both a bulging pay packet and a well-stocked trophy cabinet. Bayern are pretty much a certainty to play in the Champions League every season and they also expect to win it, so De Ligt would be in the shake-up for big honours. And although Bayern are in a rebuilding process, their dominance of German football ensures that he would still be winning during their transitional period.

CONS: In a similar fashion to PSG in France, Bayern have killed off domestic competition in the Bundesliga (though only just this season), so De Ligt might be moving to a comfort zone if he chose to leave Ajax for them.

There is uncertainty over the long-term future of coach Niko Kovac and the departures of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, and the potential sale of Mats Hummels, have left several question marks hovering over the Allianz Arena.

JUVENTUS

PROS: Just as signing for Barcelona would enable De Ligt to play with Lionel Messi, a move to Juventus would give the youngster the opportunity play and train with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Defensively, a move to Turin would be like going to a finishing school for centre-back by learning from Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci. Financially, Juve are big payers, and their dominance of Serie A should ensure plenty of winners' medals for De Ligt.

CONS: The appointment of Maurizio Sarri as Juventus coach has raised eyebrows due to his playing style and lack of a title win on his C.V., so De Ligt could be moving to Juve just as their domestic dominance begins to wane.

As he displayed at Chelsea, Sarri prefers experienced players to emerging youngsters, so De Ligt might find himself relegated to a watching role behind Chiellini and Bonucci.

VERDICT

Wherever De Ligt ends up this summer, he will find himself at a major club and with a hugely increased pay packet. But if he could hand-pick his best destination, Liverpool would be top of the pile due to the strength of the team and the opportunity to play alongside international teammate Van Dijk.

The smart money is on De Ligt moving to PSG, who look to have outbid Barcelona, but Liverpool would be the best option for the Ajax defender.

One Friday evening late last month, after the rain had come and gone, Freddy Adu drove his black Cadillac sedan into a parking lot in the Locust Point neighborhood of South Baltimore. He walked to a field where some 13-year-old boys in red and white jerseys were kicking around a soccer ball. "There's Freddy," one of them said. "Hey, Freddy!"

Soon Adu was leading them through a drill. Each would take a turn sending him a pass and then sprinting off to the right. With a single deft touch, Adu would redirect the ball to their feet. "In front of you," Adu said. "Not too far. Run at it full speed, Kevin! Run at it, and then shoot."

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Although he hasn't played for a top-tier team anywhere in seven years, Adu remains one of the most famous soccer players in America. Fans everywhere know his name. If you aren't a fan of the sport, he might be the only American soccer player you do know.

Adu was the phenom who would save American soccer from irrelevance. At 14, in 2004, he started playing for Major League Soccer's D.C. United. He starred in a commercial for Pepsi's Sierra Mist brand with Pele, who compared Adu to Mozart. He signed a Nike deal. He did a "Got Milk?" ad. He was on the cover of a cereal box, and the cover of Time magazine. In 2006, he trained briefly with Manchester United, then the world's most important club. All of that was years ago, but he's still recognized in airports.

"It wasn't like people forgot about him," says Tommy Olsen, who played with Adu last summer on the Las Vegas Lights of the second-tier United Soccer League Championship. "Everyone still knows who he is."

As a player, though, Adu's career didn't work out as everyone expected. He was supposed to be the next Pele. Instead he became a vagabond, traveling the world in search of a team where maybe he could thrive. In the 13 years since leaving D.C. United, he has played for 13 other teams. Two of them, Philadelphia and Real Salt Lake, were in MLS. Two more were big European clubs: Portugal's storied Benfica and France's AS Monaco. Mostly, they were in places you'd end up if you had nowhere else to go.

Adu played for Aris in Greece and Rizespor in Turkey. He played one game for a Serbian team. He played in Finland for KUPS and, after that, for its developmental affiliate. He went to Brazil for two games. He played in the minor league NASL for Tampa Bay. He had unsuccessful trials with Blackpool in England and Stabaek in Norway, with AZ Alkmaar in Holland and MLS' Portland Timbers. He flew to Poland to sign a contract only to learn that he'd been brought in without the manager's consent. He tries not to talk about those years in which he was floating from team to team, leaving each under a shadow of disappointment. "You have to have amnesia," he said. "Otherwise, you'll torture yourself."

He ended up in Las Vegas for the 2018 season as a last resort. It was a chance to resurrect his career at 28. That didn't work out, either. "The fans would chant his name, 'Freddy! Freddy!'" said someone affiliated with that team's management. "Then they'd see him play, and they wouldn't chant anymore."

Adu wanted to return to Las Vegas this year, especially after Eric Wynalda, the former U.S. national player and Fox commentator, was hired to manage. Wynalda turned him down.

"The reason that Freddy's not here now, there are six or seven guys getting their first chance or their second chance," Wynalda said. "He's on his fourth or fifth. It's their turn, not his."

Wynalda, too, had hoped Adu's career would have turned out differently. "He's a lot better than what we think he is," he said. "There's a lot more to him. But we never saw it."

Adu was sitting at home in suburban Washington this past November when two friends persuaded him to help their youth club, Next Level Soccer. The plan was that he would come to workouts through the winter and teach the kids how to shoot. It's June now, and he's still driving nearly an hour each way to practice sessions near Baltimore, two and three times a week. For the first time in years, he says, soccer is fun.

"This is literally grassroots," he said, sitting on the bench during a break in the practice. "None of that other stuff. Just the good parts of the game."

Still, Adu wants to be clear. "Until," he said. "That's how I've been thinking about this." In two days, he would turn 30. "I'm still plenty young. I'm not ready to give it up. Things haven't gone the way that I would have wanted them to, obviously. But I love the sport too much to say I'm ready to give it up." He still gets inquiries on Facebook, and occasionally through his agent, about his availability.

"I'd like to stay in the States," Adu said. "I've been to some obscure places in my career. I'm not sure if I want to keep doing that. I'd like to play, but I'm hoping that it's here."

As he talked, players from Next Level's under-14 team lined up to kick a ball on a diagonal toward an undersized net some 30 yards away. Most of them looked scrawny. It is hard to fathom, even after all these years, but when Adu was exactly their age, he was starting his pro career. Now he walked over to give them instruction. Strike the ball this way, he said, not like that. Several of the boys were able to get shots close to the goal. One bounced a shot off the near post, but most of them continued to miss by several feet.

Adu stepped up to demonstrate. He sent a kick on an arc. For a moment, the ball shone against the darkening sky. Then it curved into the net. Adu threw his hands into the air. He did a dance, shuffling his feet. "Golazo!" he shouted. "Go-la-zo!"

What went wrong for Freddy Adu? Arnold Tarzy thinks he knows.

Tarzy is the Maryland insurance agent who discovered the 8-year-old Adu playing with older kids in a neighborhood league. Only a few months before, Adu's family had won the right to emigrate from Ghana in a green-card lottery. Tarzy, who hadn't played competitive soccer beyond junior high school and started coaching only a few years earlier, became a mentor for Adu, leading him step by step.

In October 1999, the United States Soccer Federation staged a loosely organized youth game on the practice field at American University in Washington. The ostensible purpose was to identify emerging talent for Project 2010, a quixotic effort meant to result in a World Cup victory within a generation. But maybe it was just to see Adu, who at 10 already had made a name as a phenom.

Tarzy was at the game, watching with Bob Jenkins, a USSF staff coach at the time. It had become clear to Tarzy that Adu scored goals simply because he was better than everyone around him. If he had the ball and a defender, or even three of them, to elude, he was almost impossible to stop. But when he didn't have the ball, he stood around and waited for someone to pass it to him.

Nobody wanted Adu to succeed more than Tarzy. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that Adu's efforts were almost exclusively confined to taking the ball and putting it in the net. He turned to Jenkins. "It doesn't bother you that he doesn't work that hard on the field?" he asked.

Jenkins shook his head. "He's only working as hard as he has to."

Jenkins was referring to the game unfolding in front of them, but Tarzy was on to something. "It's a matter of habits," he says now. "He never had the work rate. He never had to. Things always came easy."

That would be Adu's undoing. Against better competition, he foundered. He scored 15 goals in 16 games for the U.S. under-17 national team, and 16 more in 33 games for the under-20s. "He was unbelievable," said Sammy Ochoa, who played with him at the under-20 World Cup in 2006. "He was great. Skillful. Quick. At that time, there was nobody like him." But in 17 appearances for the senior national team from 2006 to 2011, Adu only scored twice.

His club career ran a similar course. There were 11 goals to celebrate for D.C. United from 2004 to 2006. But since then, Adu has scored a total of 17 times. That's 17 goals over the past 13 years, playing across various levels in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. As a kid, he'd get that many goals in a weekend.

Adu was an attacking midfielder and occasionally a winger, not a striker. "I'm more quick than fast," he said. But he considered himself a finisher, not a creator. When he wasn't scoring, he wasn't doing much of anything. "He saw himself as the luxury player, the skill player," Wynalda said. "'Give me the ball and I'll make something happen.' 'OK, I screwed up, give it to me again.' 'OK, again. Just keep giving it to me.' And eventually it's like, 'You know what? I'm going to give it to some other guy.'"

Everywhere he went, Adu was his usual easygoing self. He made friends, not enemies. But that sense of entitlement undermined him in locker room after locker room. Since 2006, only two of the 13 teams he played for brought Adu back for a second season. "I think people still see me as that spoiled 14-year-old who came into the league," Adu says now. "And I did not do myself any favors."

It wasn't all his fault. American soccer was still seeking its first international star. Adu happened to be anointed. At the same time, the idea of a 14-year-old playing in a top league against adults captured the imagination of the broader public. "Everyone told him, 'You're great. You're amazing. You got it,'" Wynalda said. Adu signed a $1 million deal with Nike. His D.C. United contract paid him $500,000 more.

"He was touted before it was deserved, and before he was ready to handle it," said Jason Kreis, who was Adu's teammate and then his manager at Real Salt Lake in 2007, and now coaches the U.S. U-23 team. "He couldn't cope with it. He believed what he was reading. He believed he was worth all the money he was being paid."

Adu left Salt Lake in 2007 after Benfica recruited him. But he wasn't yet good enough to play at Europe's highest level, so he was loaned out to AS Monaco, which wanted him mostly because his fame had spread. He barely played there, either. That fall, he went to Portugal to find stability. He landed at Belenenses, which was in the midst of relegation and the hiring and firing of 10 different managers over three years. Finding a place for the young American was the least of the club's problems.

"Maybe sometimes I should have picked a team that was not so quote-unquote glamorous so I could get better as a player," he said. "Rather than going for the glamour and never getting to play."

He had another stint in MLS, two full seasons in Philadelphia. Then he drifted to and from five teams in four countries. He hadn't played in a year when Las Vegas made contact. "This is my last shot," he told Olsen. "I'm going to do it."

The Lights play in a minor league baseball park a few miles from the Strip. Pitcher's mounds remain along the sidelines. It's Las Vegas but feels more like Albuquerque. Under the guidance of Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, the former Mexican League manager known as "Chelis," last year's team employed a pressing, high-energy style. Adu was at least 10 pounds overweight when he signed, and that's being gracious. He was supposed to use the prolonged scrimmages during practice sessions to work himself into game fitness. Instead, he'd wait to receive passes that almost never came. Still, he showed flashes of brilliance, enough of them so that a one-month trial became a full season.

"A normal player might touch the ball 50 times during one of those scrimmages," said Isidro Sanchez, Chelis' son, who coached the club when his father was suspended for eight games after an altercation with a fan, and then again after Chelis gave up and returned to Mexico. "Freddy would take the ball two times. Literally two times. But those two times!"

By the end, Sanchez believed that Adu was finished as a player. "He was a body without a soul," Sanchez said. "Without spirit, without hunger. You'd see him walking, he had no energy. He said, 'I want to return to MLS. I want to do it.' But he walked like an old man. Like an ancient body."

Early on, when Adu had been in Las Vegas for only a few weeks, the Lights played a friendly against D.C. United. Adu was still on a temporary contract, but Chelis decided to start him against his former MLS team. In the 89th minute, with the Lights losing 3-2, he received a long throw-in. Suddenly, 15 years melted away. He directed a volley toward the goal from 20 yards that sailed over the bar by maybe 2 inches. When you consider the excitement it generated, its potential for glory and its ultimate fruitlessness, it might as well be a metaphor for his career.

The day of the 2018-19 Champions League final on June 1 was the last day of Freddy Adu's 20s. Only a few years ago, it seemed likely that by now he would have appeared in a final, the sport's biggest stage outside the World Cup. "It was one of my goals," he said. "I'm sure there are kids who grow up wanting to play in the MLS Cup. I had bigger dreams."

At Benfica, he dressed as one of seven potential substitutes for group-stage matches against Celtic, AC Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk. He didn't get into any of the games, yet those remain among the best memories of his soccer career. He was 18. Everything still seemed possible. But he never came close to the Champions League again.

By the time Adu arrived in Laurel, Maryland, the second half was already starting. Next Level had fallen behind 2-0. Adu watched for a while. Then he walked over to the coach, Rafik Kechrid, who was crouched in front of his team's bench. "My two cents," Adu said. Put Kevin back in the game, he advised, but on the wing. Move Diego, the fastest player, up top. Get Ollie outside so he could have some space.

Kechrid made the changes. Next Level scored. Then scored again. And here's the strange part: Watching from the sideline, Adu almost felt like he was scoring those goals himself. "Wow, that feels really good," he said. "Because you're the one putting them in the positions to succeed. And you're proud. It's like, 'I helped them to get there. I helped them to do that.'"

Over the past few months, something else has become clear. Kevin, Ollie and Diego are helping him, too. Because now that he's coaching, Adu is able to see the game like a coach. When he looks back on how he played over the past 15 years, he understands why his career unfolded the way it did. He says that he wishes he could call up all the coaches he played for over the years, one time zone to the next, and apologize to them.

"I saw my game in a certain way," he said. "They saw it as, 'You can give so much more to the team.' And I wasn't doing that." He shook his head, thinking about the years he lost, wearing uniform after uniform but often barely playing at all. "My 20s," he said. "The prime of my career."

Adu believes that several of the players at Next Level have significant potential. He knows now, though, that potential only sets the starting line. "Growing up, I was always the best player," he said. "Guys who were way below me at the time, you'd say right now had better careers than I did."

If he'd had a Freddy Adu working with him, an elite-level player there to explain what it meant to succeed, he would have developed a different attitude. "So when I see a kid who's really talented, clearly above the rest, and he's just coasting, trying to get away with his talent, I say, 'No, no, no. That can't happen! You can't let that happen! They will surpass you.' Because I was that kid."

Ask anyone who played with Adu in Las Vegas and they'll tell you he's through. Adu doesn't believe it. In the coming months, he's determined to get in shape. He will drop from 162 pounds to his playing weight of 150. "The best that I ever played," he said, as though he was only just realizing it, "was when I was the fittest. Most of my problems in Las Vegas was that I never got fit."

In recent years, he has spurned any offer that sounded suspiciously like he was being used to sell tickets or generate publicity. He refused all interviews for the same reason. "It had to be about soccer," he said. "About what I could do on the field." Now he knows that he can't be as choosy. If the time has come to trade on his name as a way to get back on the field, if that's the card he needs to play to pull on a uniform again, well, he'd be foolish to rule that out. "I'd be more open to that than I would have been before," he said. Because he still has more to prove. He can't have his career end this way.

He vows that the next time, his last last chance, will be different. "I know that for a fact," he says.