Recent comments by former USMNT superstar and all-time leading goal scorer, Landon Donovan have been making the rounds over the last few hours or so on social media. Donovan made a comment on the fox pregame show in the run up to the start of the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals about current USMNT superstar Christian Pulisic. To sum it up in the easiest way possible, Landon Donovan suggested that Christian Pulisic make the jump back to America, because he is in his prime.
He thought that by doing so it would secure a better and bigger payday for Christian Pulisic, and guarantee him minutes in the run up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held within the United States, Mexico, and Canada. He even went as far as to compare it to the recent move by Leo Messi to Inter-Miami, claiming that Messi’s ground breaking transfer was potentially influenced by the fact that the FIFA World Cup will be taking place in North America in three years time.
Landon Donovan’s comments echo that of the mindset of soon to be returning United States Men’s National Team manager, Gregg Berhalter. All too often in the past Gregg Berhalter has shown that he has a little bit of a favoritism towards players that play club soccer in the United States within Major League Soccer. One massive example of that is the constant call ups of guys like Aaron Long and in the past, Sebastian Lletget. Berhalter has been known to leave favorable and better players at home in favor of Major League Soccer players for one reason or another.
It also brings into perspective the fact that Landon Donovan never truly tested himself within the landscape of club soccer. As he reverted back to MLS whenever his career in Europe would start to go sideways. It is potentially what held him back from being considered a world-class player, because he certainly possessed all the talent in the world to become an elite player at an elite level. But he is a guy that refused to leave his comfort zone and his behavior towards the USMNT program since being left off of the 2014 World Cup roster has been questionable at best.
Donovan has been heavily critical of actions by USMNT players in the past like when he called Weston McKennie’s incident in Nashville “unforgivable.” He has also heavily criticized the recruiting of dual nationals in the past as well and this latest incident with his comments about Christian Pulisic, and how he should have come back to the United States, and played at a lower level, just adds to the forgettable opinions he has had.
While Landon Donovan is an incredible player, and one of the greatest players in the history of the United States Men’s National Team, he along with several other guys that work in media drift towards sounding more and more like copy and paste robots with each passing day and each passing situation within the USMNT world. A guy like Alexi Lalas being one of the main culprits in this situation.
Landon Donovan’s recent comments about Christian Pulisic and his recent move to AC Milan during this summer’s transfer window prove one thing. That one thing is that this is just another step in the direction of a steep decline from being a very beloved player that has turned into nothing more than a media robot for Major League Soccer.
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