CHELSEA are about to send more shock waves through the football world by beating Manchester United to secure the services of Freddy Adu, the American teenager widely regarded as the most exciting young player on the planet.

United and several top clubs in Italy and Spain have been tracking Adu for four years, but Chelsea’s negotiations are at an advanced stage. Agreements are imminent with the player and Major League Soccer (MLS), which owns his registration. The 16-year-old forward is expected to move to London in the summer, by which time he hopes to have become the youngest player to feature in a World Cup tournament, a record set by Norman Whiteside when he played for Northern Ireland in 1982.

It is a deal that will underline Chelsea’s continuing bid for global domination by signing the stars of tomorrow as well as today. They are also hoping to beat United in a bitter wrangle over John Obi Mikel, the outstanding young Nigeria midfield player, and the news that they are close to securing the services of Adu, who made his debut for DC United aged 14 and won his first full cap for the US last month at 16 years 234 days, will cause consternation in Milan and Madrid but above all in Manchester, where Sir Alex Ferguson had dreams of adding the Ghanaian-born prodigy to his legacy.

Sources at Stamford Bridge say that the initial outlay will be about £5 million for a player who, if successful, could bring Chelsea enormous commercial benefits in Africa as well as the US. It is possible that José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, would send him on loan to pick up first-team experience, but the club want him to move immediately after the World Cup and are hopeful that a work permit will be granted on appeal, even if the first application is likely to be rejected on grounds of inexperience.

Neither Chelsea nor MLS would comment last night, while one of Adu’s agents, Dan Segal, of SportsNet LLC, declined to confirm that the youngster was heading for England. “All I would like to say at this stage is that Freddy has obviously attracted a lot of interest internationally,” Segal said. “We are mindful of the fact that he will turn 17 in the summer. At this stage, nothing has truly been decided.”

Chelsea, though, believe that the deal is all but done, even if they are prepared to allow MLS to dictate the timing of any announcement. The new MLS campaign starts soon and the loss of Adu, the country’s most celebrated player, may come as an even bigger blow to the league than to DC United, although his departure to one of Europe’s biggest clubs should enhance the sport’s profile in America, particularly if he has an impact on this summer’s World Cup.

MLS has long been resigned to losing Adu. Chelsea’s management team met him for the first time during a pre-season tour of the US in July 2004 and invited him and his mother to their game against AC Milan in New York. Last summer he played against Chelsea for DC United in a friendly in Washington and said that “hopefully one day I can end up playing with those guys rather than against them. They’re my favourite team in the world.”

Should Adu get his wish, it would be another remarkable development in the life of a boy who moved to the US from Ghana at the age of 8 after his mother won a Green Card lottery. His talents came to the attention of the US Olympic Development Programme and the MLS as well as to Nike, the sportswear company, which made him its youngest blue-chip client.

Manchester United hoped that their links with Nike might give them the upper hand in negotiations, but Chelsea, not for the first time, appear to have beaten them to the punch.