Donovan, Landon

Landon Donovan, (born March 4, 1982, Ontario, California, U.S.), American professional football (soccer) player, widely regarded as the greatest American male player in the history of the sport.

Donovan was a star player in high school in Redlands, California, and in 1998 he joined the U.S. national under-17 (U-17) team. His success in U-17 play drew the attention of German club Bayer Leverkusen, which signed the teenage Donovan in 1999. He played on the Bayer reserve team for one season and was called up to the first team in 2000, but he did not appear in a game before being loaned to the San Jose (California) Earthquakes of Major League Soccer (MLS) in March 2001.

Donovan was an immediate success in his return to the United States, leading the Earthquakes to an MLS Cup title in his first year with the team. The Earthquakes won a second MLS Cup title in 2003, with Donovan earning U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year honours as well. He won the award a second time in 2004. In early 2005 he returned to Bayer Leverkusen for two and half months before being acquired by the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS. He then led the Galaxy to an MLS Cup championship in his first season in Los Angeles, giving Donovan his third league title in five years. In 2008 he was loaned to the German powerhouse team Bayern Munich for the MLS off-season, playing mostly as a substitute. After guiding the Galaxy to an appearance in the 2009 MLS Cup final (a loss to Real Salt Lake [Utah]), Donovan won the league’s Most Valuable Player award and was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year a record-tying third time. In 2010 he made his biggest splash to date as a player on loan when he became one of the featured players with Everton during a short stay in the English Premier League, and the following year he scored the championship-clinching goal to secure another MLS Cup title for the Galaxy. Donovan won his fifth career MLS title in 2012, when he scored the game-winning penalty kick in the MLS Cup final. Two years later he captured a sixth MLS Cup, as the Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 2–1 in Donovan’s final professional soccer game.

While arguably the biggest star in the MLS during his domestic career, Donovan also made his lasting mark on the sport at the international level. In addition to his exploits as a member of the U.S. U-17 team—which included winning the Golden Ball award as Most Valuable Player of the 1999 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) U-17 World Championship—Donovan starred on the American under-20 and under-23 teams and played for his country in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. He made his debut with the senior national squad in 2000, scoring a goal in his first match. Donovan led the United States to a surprising run to the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup, but the team failed to replicate its success at the 2006 World Cup, recording just two goals (one of them an opposition own goal) en route to an opening round-robin group stage elimination. He scored three goals during the U.S. run at the 2010 World Cup, most notably a dramatic score in added time against Algeria during the team’s final group-stage game that advanced the U.S. into the single-elimination knockout round. Despite his continued strong play, the 32-year-old Donovan was left off of the U.S. roster for the 2014 World Cup. He was also a member of four Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Gold Cup-winning teams (2002, 2005, 2007, and 2013).

Donovan retired from both club and international soccer in 2014 as the all-time leading goal scorer in both MLS (169 combined regular-season and postseason goals) and U.S. men’s national team (57 goals) history. He came out of retirement in 2018 to play with Club León of Liga MX in Mexico. The following year he signed with the San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League.