The Official Site of Maurice Edu

Thu, Oct 9th 2008, 14:57

In Short Time, Edu Rises Quickly

By Jeffrey Marcus – NY Times

Maurice Edu has been a professional soccer player for only two years. But in that relatively short period of time, the 22-year-old midfielder has been named Major League Soccer rookie of the year, he has starred for the United States at the Beijing Olympics, he earned a $5 million move to Glasgow Rangers in the Scottish Premier League and he is poised to earn his 10th national team cap when the U.S. plays Cuba in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday in Washington, D.C.

It has been a rapid rise for Edu, who returned to the U.S. this week after about a month in Scotland where he was quickly embraced by Rangers’ supporters.

“The whole culture and the whole atmosphere there is football oriented,” Edu said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “When I first got there, before I even signed, the fans were recognizing me. When I was walking out of the airport, the cab driver was asking me if I had signed yet.”

“The fans are in touch with everything that is going on with their team,” he said.

And what’s going on with Edu?

He made his Rangers debut against Kilmarnock on Sept. 14, just days after playing for the U.S. in a 1-0 qualifying victory over Cuba on Sept. 6, and sitting on the bench for the team’s 3-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago in Chicago on Sept. 10. Rangers Manager Walter Smith acknowledged it was a lot to ask a young player to make his debut coming off international duty and a trans-Atlantic trip.

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