When it comes to regrets, even the greatest athletes have a few. For some of the GOATs of the sports world, those moments of self-reflection have helped shape the trajectory of their impressive careers. Just ask U.S. soccer icon Landon Donovan.
“Yeah!” 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 have ever taken the field for the U.S.
In his new book, Landon: A Memoir, Donovan tells Muscle & Fitness that both on and off the field he was on a constant quest for peace, facing some of his biggest internal battles at the height of his greatest achievements—even as he was earning Best Young Player honors for his play with the U.S. team that reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Through years of therapy, he began to understand who he was outside of just being a soccer player.
“In 2002, I was 20 years old—all I cared about was making the team,” he says. “I made the team because I was focused on just playing and working hard and doing my job. I ended up starting every game. We got to the quarterfinals. I was named the best young player of the tournament, but I was never thinking about that ahead of time. It was all just about doing what I do and, and making the most of it, and then the accolades came.”
While becoming one of America’s ambassadors to soccer, Donovan in 1999 moved overseas, signing with Bayer Leverkusen of Germany’s Bundesliga, where he played for six years while also on loan with the MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes. The following year, he was the youngest member to make Team USA’s Olympics squad and scored in his very first U.S. Men’s National Team match. Eventually, he moved back full-time to the states, signing with the Los Angeles Galaxy from 2005-2014. During that time, he also was on loan with Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich and Premier League club Everton. He ultimately returned to MLS, retiring with the Galaxy in 2014.
The retirement was brief. The six-time MLS Cup champion eventually returned back to the Galaxy in 2016, followed by a quick stint with Mexican club Leon in 2018. Donovan ultimately hung it up for good in 2019 after one season in the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) with the San Diego Sockers.
Donovan, once the league’s all-time scoring leader, still holds the MLS record for regular season assists (136), and the league’s MVP award is even named after him. But it wasn’t until Donovan started maturing both on and off the field that things started clicking, even though Donovan’s body had different plans as he aged.
“Everybody wants to succeed and wants everything to go well,” adds the author. “The process is what ends up making or breaking it. And so in our sport, different than the figure skaters or the gymnasts, in a lot of cases, it is down to them and they have to perform. And that’s the value of playing a team sport. So focusing on the process I think is important. All the accolades and all the good things come.”
How Impatience Helped Shape Landon Donovan’s Early Career
Even with the impressive resume, the Ontario, Calif. native wishes he was wiser when starting out in his career as a teenager overseas when things didn’t always go his way.
“I think I would have been more patient early in my career when things didn’t go well,” says Donovan. “When things don’t go well and you’re young, you want action, results. Or, ‘I’m going to leave!’ or, ‘I’m going to quit!’ or. ‘I’m going to-’ and it doesn’t work that way in sports and in life.
You need time to develop and get better at things, or sometimes somebody else has the job you want and you have to put in your time and wait, and I wish I would have been more patient in that way. That’s probably the biggest regret.”
Donovan admits to be naive, thinking at age 17, he’d be an immediate superstar. But he quickly realized, things were going to go differently than the story he told himself before heading to Europe to play.
“When you’re a kid and you don’t have any experience or anybody to tell you what it’s going to be like,” Donovan explains. “You expect you’re gonna go over there and be a star and play every game and every minute. Everyone’s gonna love you, and the reality is, I was 17 playing with grown men. I was nowhere near ready, and so if I had somebody explain to me that this is the process, it’s going to take time, you have to work your way in, that would have at least set my expectations so that I wouldn’t have been so disappointed.”
Landon Donovan Wants His Kids to Play Without Pressure
With his own experience and knowledge, Donovan hopes the next wave of athletes, including his three kids, will learn from his past mistakes and enjoy the popularity of the sport today.
“I grew up in a time where very few people played soccer, watched soccer, knew soccer, and that is very different today,” Donovan shares. “When I talk to kids, when I talk to parents around soccer, they are all so much more engaged in the game than I ever was. When I go to school to pick up my kids, by a long, long shot, the vast majority of them are wearing soccer jerseys, not football or baseball or basketball. It’s crazy. And so there’s been a massive change in the awareness of the sport, but also the consumption of the sport. Now at any point, and this is true because of social media and the way the internet is, at any point, any time, anybody can access soccer in a way that I never had access to.”
But one thing fans won’t see Donovan doing is coaching his kids in the sport that made him a household name.
“I am the opposite of what you might expect,” says Donovan with a smile. “I do not in any way push my kids. I have one rule with my kids. They have to play a team sport, and they can choose what it is. 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 I can. I put in earbuds. I listen to music, and I just watch my kid play soccer or play football or play baseball, and I love it. I love watching them play and I stay out of all the mess.”
