American Exports: Adu to go on loan to Turkey
AMSTERDAM — Peripatetic Benfica attacker Freddy Adu will sign up for a six-month loan spell with Turkish second division side Çaykur Rizespor on Monday, MLSsoccer.com has learned.
It is not yet known whether the club hold a summer purchase option on the 21-year-old, who recently was let out of the last six months of a loan pact with Greek side Aris FC. Adu's Benfica deal lasts until the summer of 2012.
The American had been on trial with 2.Bundesliga side Ingolstadt during their midseason training camp in Turkey. Sources told MLSsoccer.com that Ingolstadt wanted to take Adu on a free transfer, but Benfica's insistence on a fee halted the move.
The playmaker won the 2004 MLS Cup with D.C. United and then played for Real Salt Lake before heading to Benfica in a $2 million transfer in 2007. Adu scored five goals in 20 games across all competitions in the first year of his Eagles deal, but has since wandered on loan to Monaco, Belenenses and Aris, for whom he scored twice in 11 outings last season.
Rizespor—known locally as the Black Sea Sparrowhawks—currently stand third in the Bank Asya 1. Lig through 18 of 32 games. The team is just seventh in the division in goals scored with 21 and have posted shutout losses in three of their last four matches.
The club, last in the Turkish top flight back in 2008, stand two points off the top ahead of Saturday's visit from Denizlispor.
