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Landon Donovan is an American retired professional soccer player, who is league's all-time top scorer with 144 goals as well as all-time assists leader with 136. Here are 48 interesting facts about Donovan:
- Landon Donovan was named as the greatest male American soccer player of all time by “The Guardian,” in 2015.
- In his honor, Major League Soccer has announced to change the name of the Major League Soccer MVP Award to Landon Donovan MVP Award on January 15, 2015.
- He was born as Landon Timothy Donovan on March 4, 1982 in Ontario, California.
- He was born to Donna Kenney-Cash, a special education teacher and Tim Donovan, a semi-professional ice hockey player.
- He has two siblings Josh and Tristan. Josh is older brother while Tristan is his twin sister.
- His mother Donna Kenney raised her kids on her own in Redlands, California.
- He is an accomplished gymnast, but his main interest has been soccer. He started playing competitive football at an early age of 5.
- In his first game in an organized league he scored seven goals. He was only six at that time.
- He successfully got selected into the U.S. Youth Soccer’s Olympic Development program in 1997. Two years later, he attended IMG Academy in Florida as part of U.S. Soccer’s training program.
- Timothy Donovan divorced Donna when Landon was just two years old. Sr. Donovan remarried and moved to Nebraska. He again reappeared in Landon Donovan’s life when he was about to make a name for himself.
- Manager of the Club Bayer Leverkusen, Michael Reschke noticed Donovan’s talent during a youth tournament in Europe. He signed a six year contract with him in 1999.
- He was loaned to San Jose Earthquakes in 2001 and his success was imminent. He led them to MLS Cup Championship in 2001 and 2003.
- He was also named as the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 2003. He became the only recognizable face of Soccer in America.
- In 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship, he won the Golden ball as the best player of the tournament.
- By 2000, he played for both U.S U-23 men’s national soccer team as well as for the senior team. He also played for U.S. U-20 men’s national soccer team in the year 2001.
- He was involved in a collision with Trinidad & Tobago U-20 player Marvin Lee, resulting in Donovan breaking a rib and Lee being paralyzed. Lee later died in 2003.
- He made his debut in the World Cup Finals in 2002, where he was instrumental in defeating the favorites, Portugal 3-2.
- He scored his first World Cup Final goal in the 83rd minute against Poland in 2002. However Americans lost the game 3-1.
- He was named as the “Best Young Player” of the tournament in 2002 World Cup Final.
- In 2004, he was named as the U.S. Soccer Athletes of the Year for the third time in a row. He is the first person to achieve this fete.
- He returned to the German club Bayer Leverkusen in 2005. However, he expressed his desire to return to MLS and was traded to Los Angeles Galaxy.
- His first season with LA Galaxy turned out to be a success for the club as they won the MLS Cup. He scored 16 goals and 11 assists in the tournament.
- The win for LA Galaxy also meant his third MLS championship with 2 different clubs after the two with San Jose Earthquakes in 2001 and 2003.
- He was also named among the MLS All Time Best XI after the successful first season with LA Galaxy.
- He became the second leading scorer with 14 goals in an MLS tournament playoff, behind Carlos Ruiz with 15. He achieved this while scoring in the playoffs in his second season with LA Galaxy. However, they lost to Chicago Fire.
- He gave team captaincy to David Beckham, when the later joined LA Galaxy in 2007.
- In the Superliga tournament in 2007, he scored a goal in each game except in the final, thus taking his tally to 84; the most in the league’s all time scoring list.
- He along with David Beckham and Edson Buddle formed an offensive partnership and scored a total of 20 goals and assists from 25 games in 2008 Superliga.
- In the 2009 MLS season he lead LA Galaxy to the cup final but lost in penalties. He was adjudged as league’s Most Valuable Player and also won the MLS Goal of the Year 2009 award.
- He received lot of criticism for his comments about David Beckham in journalist Grant Wahl‘s book “The Beckham Experiment”. He stated that Beckham was a poor captain and a poor teammate.
- He scored 4 goals in the Gold Cup tournament in 2007 and led United States soccer team to win the finals against Mexico with a crucial penalty.
- He surpassed Eric Wynalda as the United States All time leading goal scorer with 35 international goals, when he scored against Sweden in 19 January 2008.
- He also became the fourth youngest person to reach 100 caps when he led US soccer team against Argentina on 8 June 2008. He was only 26 at that time.
- He became the highest goal scoring America man in a World Cup history when he scored against 2-1 loss to Ghana in 2010. He is also the third American man to score in three different world cups after Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey.
- He is also the highest goal scorer with 5 goals in a world cup from a man representing a team from CONCACAF.
- He joined Bayern Munich in November 2008 on loan at the start of the 2009 MLS Season. At the end of the loan period the German team declined to extend his loan.
- In January 2010 he joined Everton and played all thirteen games scoring 2 goals. At the end of the month he was adjudged Club’s Player of the Month for his performance.
- He also expressed his desire to take a break from his soccer career citing mental and physical exhaustion in October 2012.
- He has criticized the professional sports world in dealing with mental health issues. He has openly stated about dealing with depression all his life.
- He holds the record for most MLS Cup wins with 6 and is the top scorer with 144 goals in the tournament.
- On 31 December 2006 he married actress Bianca Kajlich, however their marriage did not last more than 4 years. They applied for divorce in December 2010.
- He again married Hannah Bartell in May 2015.
- He has made Manhattan Beach in California as is home since joining LA Galaxy.
- He speaks fluent Spanish and German, both learned during his stint with Hispanic teams and German teams.
- During a brief stint with Everton in 2010, he became the fan favorite which resulted in him stating that he is Evertonian for life.
- He was left from US World Cup 2014 squad by Jurgen Klinsman even though he was instrumental in their team’s qualification to World Cup berth. He scored a goal and assisted one against Mexico for a crucial win for entry into World Cup.
- He also became the first American man to score 50 international goals and fourth man from CONCACAF with 50 goals when he played against Guatemala in the warm-up friendly before Gold cup.
- He also had a short stint as team coach to MLS Homegrown Team for the 2015 MLS Homegrown Game. On 28 July 2015 his team tied the game 1-1 and later lost 4-5 in a shootout.
