LONDON — It was evidently easier to spot a child star in Hollywood 70 years ago than it is to help teenage shooting stars make the grade in professional soccer today.

Shirley Temple won a Juvenile Academy Award in 1935 for her performance in “Bright Eyes” — and she had been born in 1928. Freddy Adu and Federico Macheda, apparently wonderfully prodigious talents when they were in their teens, are finding it a whole lot tougher to make the grade in the men’s game.

Both Adu and Macheda are gifted. Both were made rich before they achieved very much. And both are wondering this week who, if anyone, will take them on loan and give them a chance of finding a permanent place to apply their skills.

Adu, born in 1989, is the Ghanaian-American who became the youngest professional player in Major League Soccer history after he was drafted by Washington in 2004. At the same young age, Nike made him a millionaire thanks to an endorsement deal.