When it comes to regrets, even the greatest athletes have a few. For some in the world of sports, those moments of self-discovery helped shape the trajectory of their impressive careers. Just ask US Soccer icon Landon Donovan.
“Yes!” Donovan, who opened up about his life in his latest work,
“How much time do you have?” he asks.
The 44-year-old has played in three FIFA World Cups and is arguably one of the best soccer players to ever play for the US.
In his new book, Landon: Memoirs, Donovan says Muscles and fitness that both on and off the field he was in constant search for peace and faced some of his greatest internal battles at the height of his greatest achievements – even as he won the Young Player of the Year award for playing alongside his hero. The USA team reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Through years of therapy, he learned who he was outside of being a football player.
“In 2002, I was 20 years old – all I cared about was making the team,” he says. “I made the team because I just focused on playing, working hard and doing my job. I started every game. We got to the quarter-finals. I was named the best young player of the tournament, but I never thought about it ahead of time. It was just about doing what I do and making the most of it and then the rewards came.”
While becoming one of America’s ambassadors for soccer, Donovan went abroad in 1999 and signed with Bayer Leverkusen of the German Bundesliga, where he played for six years, while also being loaned to MLS team San Jose Earthquakes. The following year, he was the youngest member of the US Olympic team and scored a goal in his first game for the US men’s national team. Eventually, he returned to the states for good. contract with Los Angeles Galaxy from 2005-2014. During that time he was also on loan at Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and Premier League club Everton. He eventually returned to MLS and retired in 2014 with the Galaxy.
The retirement was brief. The six-time MLS Cup champion eventually returned to the Galaxy in 2016, followed by a brief stint with Mexican club Leon in 2018. Donovan finally hung it up in 2019 after one season in the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) with the San Diego Sockers.
Donovan, once the league’s leading scorer, still holds the MLS record for regular season assists (136) and even has the league’s MVP award named after him. But it wasn’t until Donovan began to mature both on and off the field that things started to change, though Donovan’s body had different plans as he aged.
“Everyone wants to succeed and wants everything to go well,” adds the author. “Process is what makes it or breaks it. And so in our sport, unlike dancers or gymnasts, a lot of times it’s up to them and they have to perform. And that’s the value of playing a team sport. So I think it’s important to focus on that process. All the compliments and all the good stuff comes.”
How impatience helped shape Landon Donovan’s early career
Even with an impressive resume, the Ontario, Calif. native wishes he had been smarter when he began his career as a teenager overseas, when things didn’t always go his way.
“I think early on in my career, when things weren’t going well, I was patient,” Donovan says. “When things don’t go well and you’re young, you want to demand action, results. Either ‘I’m going!’ or ‘I’m going to quit!’ or ‘I’m going to-‘ and that’s not how it works in sports and life.
It takes time to grow and get better at things, or sometimes someone else has something you want and you have to take your time and wait, and I wish I had been patient along the way. This is probably the biggest regret.”
Donovan admits to being naive and thinking that at 17 he would be an instant superstar. But he quickly learned that things would turn out differently from the story he told before leaving for Europe to play.
“When you’re a kid and you don’t have experience or you don’t have anybody to tell you what it’s going to be like,” Donovan said. “You expect that you will go there and become a star and play every game and every minute. Everyone will love you and the reality is that I was 17 years old playing with older men. I was never ready and if someone explained to me that this is a process, that it takes time, you have to work your way inside, I expected that I would have done it. I was disappointed.”
Landon Donovan wants his kids to play without pressure
With his personal experience and knowledge, Donovan hopes that the next wave of athletes, including his three children, will learn from his past mistakes and benefit from the sport’s popularity today.
“I grew up in a time when very few people played football, watched football, knew football, and it’s a lot different today,” Donovan said. “When I talk to kids, when I talk to parents about football, they’re more into the game than ever. When I go to school to pick up my kids, by far, most of them are wearing football jerseys, not soccer or baseball or basketball. It’s crazy. And so there’s been a big change in the consumption of sports. Now at any moment, and that’s right, because of social media and the way the internet, at any moment, at any time, everyone can have access to football in a way that I never had access to.”
But one thing fans don’t see Donovan doing is coaching their kids in the sport that made him a household name.
“I’m the opposite of what you expect,” Donovan said with a smile. “I don’t push my kids in any way. I have one rule with my kids. They have to play a team sport and they can choose. I don’t care what it is. I don’t coach them. During the game I sit as far away from all the parents and coaches as possible. I put on headphones. I listen to music and I just watch, my kid likes to play or I like their football or I like to play or like to play. play and I’ll stay away from all the chaos.”
