Landon Donovan Biography

All-time top scorer and probably the greatest soccer player of all time with numerous awards and the most caps, Landon Timothy Donovan currently plays as a striker for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Also a major player for the US men’s national soccer team, he is the only player to reach the 50 goal/50 assist mark, a four-time winner of US Soccer Athlete of the Year, and also a five-time World Cup holder. Major League Soccer. Landon is the holder of numerous record-breaking awards and is probably one of the nation’s foremost players of it.

Landon was born on March 4th ^, 1982 in Ontario, California. He was forced to join an organized Cal Heat league in which he scored seven goals in his first game. His exquisite talent led to his acceptance into the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program in 1997. Donovan completed his education at Redlands East Valley High School in his hometown and learned professional soccer. at the IMG Academy in Florida.

In 1999, German club Bayer Leverkusen signed Donovan on a six-year deal after his sporting director spotted him at a youth tournament in Europe. His lack of interest in and catching up with German culture led him to spend more time training with the under 17 national team. Donovan was then loaned out to the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer for the 2001 season. MLS led the Earthquakes to the MLS Cup championships in the 2001 and 2003 season, making him well known in his country. In the four years he was with the team, Donovan scored 32 goals in 29 assists in league games, 10 goals in 6 assists in the playoffs. He contributed two of these goals in the 2003 MLS Cup win against the Chicago Fire and was therefore named Man of the Match. The same year, Donovan was named the USA Soccer Athlete of the Year. After earning the same title in 2004, he became the first American to be named US Soccer Athlete of the Year for three consecutive years.

In 2005, he returned to his old team Bayer Leverkusen and after seven games he wanted to return to MLS. However, the rights to him had already been transferred to his current team Los Angeles Galaxy. In his first season with the team, he scored a total of sixteen goals with eleven assists, four goals and one assist, including going to the MLS Cup Finals where Galaxy won. This was his third MLS championship, thus naming him MLS’s All-Time Best XI after the season. In his second season, he scored twelve goals and eight assists in League matches and three goals in the Open Cup. Despite losing the Open Cup to the Chicago Fire, his goals in the playoffs make him the second all-time top scorer in MLS with fourteen goals.

2007 led him to cede the captaincy to David Becham, but he was the top scorer in the SuperLiga. E he scored a goal in every game except the final and had eighty-four regular season all-time goals, which put him seventh on the all-time scoring list. In 2008, Donovan scored twenty goals in twenty-five games despite the team having a disappointing season. As of 2009, with the loan of David Beckham to AC Milan, Donovan regained his captaincy permanently. Some problems arose between him and Beckham after he made some rude comments about Beckham being a bad captain and teammate to a reporter. They later reconciled after he apologized and after Beckham’s return to Los Angeles. Donovan had an incredible campaign in 2009 after winning the league MVP, the 2009 MLS Goal of the Year and led the Galaxy to the MLS Cup final that same year. He agreed to a four-year extension with the club with clauses that would allow him to be loaned out to other teams during the MLS offseason. On August 1, 2010 he scored 100^th goal of his MLS career and became the all-time leading scorer for the team on September 18, 2010. The same year, the Galaxy won the Supporters’ Shield. Galaxy won the same title the following season. Donovan secured his 4th ^MLS Cup Title in the 2011 MLS Cup, where he scored a title-winning goal against the Houston Dynamo. He was named MLS Cup MVP. He did the same in the 2012 season that led the Galaxy to the 2012 MLS Cup win.

Donovan handed over his captaincy to Robbie Keane in the 2013 season and was the top scorer in MLS with 134 goals along with Jeff Cunningham. He broke the record with two more goals against the Philadelphia Union.

His loans to other clubs included one to Bayern Munich in November 2008, in which he featured in five four-goal friendlies, five league games and one DFB Cup match. He refused to extend the loan to him at the end of the loan period.

Donovan was loaned out after the 2009 MLS season to Everton of the English Premier League in January 2010. He made a total of thirteen appearances scoring two goals and was named the club’s Player of the Month. Donovan spent another two months at Everton starting in January 2012 and in a total of 7 assists, he scored three goals.

As for the international arena, Donovan won the Ballon d’Or at the 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Championship as the tournament’s best player. He scored a total of 35 goals in 41 appearances. In 2000, he was moved up to the US under-23 men’s national soccer team, as well as the senior team and under-20 team in 2001.

Donovan’s World Cup final debut was in the 2002 World Cup against Portugal, he scored his first World Cup goal against Poland and his second against Mexico. He was named the tournament’s Best Young Player. He became the all-time assist leader for the United States with twenty-three in 2006. He was a member of the 2006 World Cup team and led the United States to the 2007 Gold Cup title with four goals. Donovan reached 100 caps at the age of 26 on June 8, 2008 as the fourth-youngest person to do so.

Donovan captained the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup group stage for the United States and was named to the 2010 World Cup Squad. He scored many crucial and amazing goals in the season and became the American man with the most goals in World Cup history that year, as well as being only the third to score in more than one World Cup.

Donovan missed the first three 2013 World Cup qualifiers, leading to his being left out of the World Cup squad for the year. However, he was called up for the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He became the first American player to reach the 50th international goals mark and the fourth in CONCACAF to score 50 international goals in July 2013. He also became the first player to reach the level of 50 goals and 50 assists. He has been left out of the national team list for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

This player with a record playing history has a height of 5 feet 8 inches and a weight of 70 kg. His salary for the Galaxy is $2.3 million annually and his net worth is $4 million according to the transfer market. He is married and his wife is actress Bianca Kajilch on December 31, 2006 and they separated in July 2009. They divorced in December 2010 and currently lives in Manhattan Beach, California. At the age of 32, he has accomplished everything on the soccer field and will surely continue to do so for many years to come.