A star in making? Nine-year-old creates a buzz that crashes web site.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Michelle Kaufman

MIAMI _ What's next? Soccer scouts in the delivery room?

Scouring the international soccer wires, we ran across this item that further proves the sports world _ particularly soccer _ is getting a bit out of hand.

The story was about Jean Carlos Chera, a 9-year-old Brazilian kid who is already attracting interest from Manchester United and other top European teams. Yes, you read correctly. NINE YEARS OLD.

The boy weighs 77 pounds and is 4-6. He plays for the youth team of Associacao Desportiva Atletica, a small club in the southern state of Parana. Team president Adilson Batista Prado told Reuters that the team has been inundated with requests of videotapes after the club and a newspaper posted footage of the kid playing on their websites. The sites got so many hits they overloaded and are currently shut down.

On the video, Chera, who goes by the name ``Anderson'' (we have no idea why), is seen dribbling through 13- and 14-year-olds, and scoring spectacular goals.

``Seven or eight European clubs have already contacted us to know more about Jean,'' Prado said. ``They want to know what he is all about, and I tell them he's a phenomenon, probably the best player to come out of Brazil.''