Freiburg praise resurgent Adamu: “He can become an important player for us.”

Signed for a reported €6 million last summer, 23-year-old Austrian striker Junior Adamu proved a total flop in every sense of the word for his new German club SC Freiburg last year. The RB Salzburg academy man never cracked Christian Streich’s starting XI in the league once. A horrible outing in the second round of the 2023/24 Pokal saw him subbed off at the half. Adamu also didn’t make it beyond 45 minutes in his lone Europa League start. 

Outgoing transfer rumors swirled around the player all summer. Adamu nevertheless managed to work his way back into the plans of newly-appointed SCF trainer Julian Schuster with a strong training camp. Schuster tapped Adamu to spearhead the attack in the Breisgauer opening Pokal fixture against VfL Osnabrück. In his first full 90-minute shift in an SCF tricot, Adamu netted a scorer’s brace near the end of the 4-0 victory.

“He’s done really well in training camp,” Adamu’s fellow striker Lucas Höler – as quoted by Kicker Magazine journalist Thiemo Müller – noted afterwards, “He’s like a new man. He’s playing really well and scoring goals. We’re all happy that he’s showcasing himself now I think he can become a very important player for us.”

“He began camp healthy,” Schuster – also quoted by Müller – added, “Junior has rewarded himself for an intensive training camp. He works incredibly hard on and against the ball. And then it’s no coincidence that he was rewarded with two goals.” 

Adamu himself is quoted is Müller in the Kicker Magazine piece as thanking Schuster for “being open to scout” him. SCF manager Klemens Hartenbach also put an interesting spin on all the transfer rumors popping up over the summer, insisting that the club had no intention of “writing Adamu off so early.”