My fellow Americans, it’s clear that Landon Donovan is one of the best, if not THE best player in American MLS history. It’s also obvious that how good he actually is/was has been severely distorted by ESPN over-promoting and over-hyping him. I’m addressing America first in this post because I want to let everyone know that the rest of the world doesn’t consider Landon Donovan to be a superstar or anything close to it.
His MLS record is actually pretty close to a real life version of Crash Davis obtaining the Minor League home run record in the 1988 film “Bull Durham.” (it’s actually kind of a dubious honor in the international way of looking at it) MLS is consistently ranked as the 8th or 9th best league in the world. If you need further validation that Major League Soccer is actually minor league consider that reigning league MVP, Chicago Fire Forward Mike Magee, was like the 32nd or 33rd guy on the USMNT roster.. which can only take 23.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at what Fulham Manager Felix Magath had to say about Donovan.
On his Facebook page, Magath took Donovan to task for his comments regarding the USA team and in particular manager Jurgen Klinsmann, whom Donovan had criticized following the round of 16 loss against Belgium. Describing Donovan as a “mediocre player” who wasn’t good enough to make the reserves at Bayern Munich, Magath’s certainly not worrying about upsetting anyone in his rather strident attack. But he might have a point: it’s not exactly a great look to publicly criticize the coach after not being selected for a tournament, and while Donovan enjoys hero status in the United States, he’s an afterthought virtually everywhere else.
Everyone but Donovan, meanwhile, has been praised. Magath says that the United States “gave everything” and “earned the respect of the football world with their World Cup performance,” compliments that only make his scathing comments regarding Donovan have that much more biting.
Yes, I wasn’t much a fan of Donovan’s TV analysis for the World Wide Leader, here’s what he actually said in ripping Klinsmann. Landon is mostly nowadays an ESPN creation. They needed an American superstar so badly in order to promote their World Cup coverage and sell it to their domestic audience that they tried to create one. When Landon Donovan was cut from the USMNT, they then channeled that need into a manufactured controversy and storyline. Bristol then banged us over the head with it for weeks leading up the World Cup.
The story was “OMG! How could Jurgen Klinsman cut the GREAT Landon Donovan from the national team?” What a great debate point for the talking heads to banter about endlessly. The actual truth was….the decision to cut him was rather cut and dry and ESPN over-milked it, and kept Donovan from even discussing it until they brought him back as a TV analyst. The network kept the player under wraps for weeks (Donovan’s club team the L.A. Galaxy willingly acquiesced, and then some) so they would have their precious exclusive, and then market it as so.
It was all coordinated and orchestrated. Now as we see Tim Howard get the Johnny Manziel Lebron James Tim Tebow treatment from ESPN, it only verifies my thesis that ESPN is overly eager to create and market a U.S. superstar in the sport. Except Howard actually deserves the hype and promotion. He is among the best goalkeepers in the world. And you can understand why ESPN is banging us over the head with Howard talking points.
To sum up the situation, read this from Soccerly
After all he achieved for the United States over the past decade, Landon Donovan’s career with the national team should have ended in a more dignified manner than this.
Self-mocking video game commercials and awkward television ‘analyst’ appearances are no way for a man with 156 appearances for his country to close the chapter on a major part of his life and his country’s soccer evolution.
But after Donovan’s public criticism of Jurgen Klinsmann, less than 24 hours after the defeat to Belgium it is hard to see a way in which he can return to a national team set-up and even a one-off ‘farewell game’ would be an uncomfortable affair.
Whatever denials may be made by both the player and coach, it is clear that the pair do not see eye-to-eye and there is little mutual respect between them.
Donovan’s decision to criticize Klinsmann’s tactics confirmed that for any remaining doubters and, inevitably, left him open to the accusation of sour grapes.
Agreed, this is not the way Landon Donovan should see his international career end. He deserves better than this. Still, he played along with the micro-managing and marketing games of ESPN, so he’s getting what he deserves.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)