‘ThankYouLD’, that’s what has been trending on social media in the United States since Thursday, after Landon Donovan announced he would retire at the end of the MLS season, and rightly so.
For a country that used to be behind the world in catching up with the most globally recognized sport, they have definitely produced a great player.
Landon Donovan hangs his boots at the age of 32 as USA’s all-time top scorer as well as the domestic league’s record all-time top scorer, a true phenomenon in leading a whole nation to the light of the excitement of the world’s greatest sport.
Soccer is not the major sport in the US, the players don’t make much buzz like the American Football players, the basketball players or even hockey players, and for a nation that has always seemed to fall behind the world in terms of the arousal of –some would say- actual football, they have done well to come this far.
In 1999 the USA women’s national team won the FIFA World Cup for a second time and that community hasn’t looked back since.
The likes of Michel Akkers and Mia Hamm inspired a whole nation and if you had asked a young American girl what she wanted to be that time, she would have said ‘a soccer player.’
Mia Hamm wrote large in the history of USA’s soccer, not just in the women’s section but for both genders, scoring a total of 158 international goals the record for both men and women’s football.
She began the movement, only that it was a one sided movement, USA women still wax stronger and stronger as they are ranked number one in the world.
But all that changed at the 2002 World Cup, where the 20 year old Landon Donovan showed what he could do on a global stage, already making a name for himself in the German youth side of Bayer Leverkusen, he made quite the impression at the World Cup, winning the Best Young Player award.
Never before had the world seen such a player from the USA who played with such fearlessness and grace as Donovan.
Donovan would go on to play 2 more world cups, USA were disappointing in Germany but at South Africa, Landon Donovan would score 3 goals, all crucial ones in fact, especially that last minute goal against Algeria to secure qualification into the next round.
Landon Donovan’s talent was enough to attract the attention of the Premier League, following his loan spells to Everton where he contributed largely to the Merseyside outfit, versatile enough to play on both wings an in attacking midfield, he assisted 7 of their goals during his stint, and he also went on loan to German side, Bayern Munich.
As for this year’s World Cup, the decision of Jürgen Klinsmann to exclude Donovan for the competition put the country at its edge in preparation for the World Cup, despite the US impressing at the global stage, many still thought they could have gone farther if he was included.
Landon Donovan continued a trend of doing justice to the number 10 jersey, just like Brazil had Pelé, Argentina had Maradona, USA had Donovan.
Not by any means in the class of them, but he inspired a whole country towards playing the game at such a high level.
With 57 international goals as well as 57 international assists, 137 MLS goals, all all-time records, Landon Donovan is the greatest player to ever surface from the USA.
