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Freddy Adu leaves club in Finland a few months after signing

Freddy Adu leaves club in Finland a few months after signing

Freddy Adu just turned 26. If he were an intern, nobody would suspect him of a recent career change. If he were applying to business or law school, colleges might wonder if he had enough life and work experience to make a success of it. He could still be many years away from earning his PhD.

It's only been five years since he could drink legally. It's only been a year since he has been able to rent a car – without paying a steep surcharge on account of his age, anyway.

On Tuesday, Freddy Adu just left his 11th club team, claiming he unilaterally ended his contract with KuPS in Finland. It had been less than 3½ months since he had signed.

He has now, 12 years into his preposterously premature career, played – and disappointed – for D.C. United, Real Salt Lake, Benfica (Portugal), AS Monaco (Monte Carlo/France), Belenenses (Portugal), Aris (Greece), Rizespor (Turkey), Philadelphia Union, Bahia (Brazil), Jagodina (Serbia) and KuPS.

Although word has it Adu wasn't in sufficient shape to play for KuPS's first team in the lowly Finnish league. Instead, he was playing for its reserves in Finland's fourth flight. (He did, however, score this lovely goal. He was, in essence, banished to soccer's Siberia, which was – both geographically and meteorologically – very close to actual Siberia.

But now, it seems, even Siberia doesn't have room for Freddy Adu.

At 26, most soccer players enter their prime. But "The Next Pele" is, once again, looking for a club where he can make good on even a fraction of his once-overhyped potential.

And so lumbers on perhaps the most confounding career in the history of sports.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.