13 Year Old - Charles Renken

American soccer was taken by storm a few years back when rummors of an incredibly gifted 13 year old started to appear. Now we're all aware of Freddy Adu and many probably think he was a once in a lifetime type of player. However, the soccer boards are alight with talk of another 13 year old these days. Charles Renken of Edwardsville, Illinois started getting invited to regional ODP camps two years ago as an 11 year old. Renken was born in Zambia and adopted by an American family at the age of 9 and he has played for St. Louis super-club, Scott Gallagher. This year at the Nike Friendlies Renken is playing with the U-15 National Team and yesterday he was the only player to score for the US against FC Delco. On Friday Renken had the pleasure to play against Italian youth side Juventus.

Rumors are out there that the 13 year old star will follow in Adu's footsteps to join the US U-17 residency program. If he does, and if he excels there, we could see a second 14 year old phenom joining MLS. That is getting a little ahead of things but it is exciting to see that Freddy may not have been a once in a lifetime occurrence.

Someday we could be reading about Renken skipping MLS all together as he has already had interest from AC Milan, 1860 Munich, Reading, Bayern Munich and Arsenal.