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Report: Landon Donovan considering running for U.S. Soccer president

 

A very familiar face is considering a run at the U.S. Soccer presidency.

According to Sports Illustrated, Landon Donovan has been asked by a number of figures throughout American soccer to consider a running for U.S. Soccer president. Current president Sunil Gulati said on Friday that he has yet to decide if he will run again come February.

In addition, SI reported that Boston lawyer Steve Gans has received the required three letters of nomination to officially be placed on the ballot for the presidency. With Gans’ nomination, U.S. Soccer will have a contested election since 1998.

The election is set for February and candidates have until December to come forth.

Comments

  1. He might have some great ideas. He might not.

    Does anybody even have an idea what he’s proposing, or what his direction would be?

    What are his communications skills? Organizational skills? Top-down sense of the pyramid? I know he’s coached a couple of homegrown teams, but does he have any other leadership experience beyond that?

    Dunno. I’d be a little interested but mostly dubious. He’s still pretty durn young, especially in terms of real-life experience.

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  2. Although he was a very accomplished soccer player, what are his qualifications for running any sort of organization or business. We need someone who knows the ins and outs of the economic, financial and hiring ends of things. As far as I can see he has zero experience in these areas so he would likely be well out of his league. We need someone with CEO, GM or CFO experience in bundles.

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  3. Could care less who the President is just fix the developmental aspects of US soccer and that’s it. Who ever gets elected should outsource the responsibility of hiring coaches and the TD to someone who has a history in that department. I’m tired of the this person knows American soccer and what it should be but guess what it hasn’t been working. The US need help, just ask for it and stop trying to do it their way which clearly isn’t working.

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  4. Gulati Needs to go. Reyna would be better than Donovan who would be awful and Reyna would be better than Wynalda or the Boston Lawyet.

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  5. Rob’s mocking comment is doubly hilarious, because most commenters here are essentially asking for that. Peeps keep acting like our team’s technical deficiencies and character flaws can be fixed by the “USSF President”… *Inigo Montoya voice* I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    Maybe, if what the President does is help guys like Infantino get elected so we can make more $ off matches and score ourselves a guaranteed WC berth in 2026… Maaaaybe Gulati is what we need?

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  6. This is just silly. Agree on all euro-phobic comments. He will make it that much harder to attract the type of coach and technical director we need for the program. He would not be able to resist the desire to put the boots on “show the boys how its done”. Soccer pedigree aside – thats the last thing we need.

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  7. Love Donovan as player and his a legend, but do we really want the guy who didn’t want to challenge himself against the best competition in world running our federation. It be like Jeter saying nah I’ll stay in AAA the rest of my career. Euro basketballers dream of playing in the NBA, Caribbean baseballer dream of making it to MLB. Kids playing soccer dream of playing Champions League(more than 2-3 games).

    I want someone who has more experience abroad who’s learned their processes and mentality so we can take the best of what works there and adapt it to what works here. Not sure if Donovan has that. We need ideas outside of USSF and MLS.

    Plus I think a lot of us are not really aware of the role and skill set needed of a federation president. I think most of the comments seems more pointed at what would make a great technical director. Federation presidents are more of the political and business guy behind the scenes making competitions happen and arranging the marketing and tv rights and so forth.

    Saw a comment on here last week mentioning what would be a better USSF setup going forward and I thought its worth repeating. The comment said we should have a president who oversees two other positions as well as the overall organization across teams. Under the president would be a GM who does the business/marketing side of things such as organizing competitions and tv rights and paying players, etc. Also, under the president would be an independent technical director who overseas the soccer decisions such as youth soccer, coaching standards, and hiring the managers for all age levels including senior teams. I think Donovan would fit this technical director role best but once he gets some experience at the front office level somewhere first.

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    • Agree with a lot of what’s written here, but can we at least acknowledge that we’re living in the real world and if the choices are between Donovan and Gulati, only one of them actually played soccer professionally, including in Europe, and therefore has a sense of what sacrifices it takes, who might succeed in Europe, and who might not? Gulati doesn’t even sniff the standard you’ve now set in your first paragraph.

      More generally, I especially agree with your final paragraph.

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      • In no way am I advocating Suni keeo his job. I believe we will see quite a few folks toss the hat in the ring in the mear future. Just wish fams got a vote.

  8. i think I would prefer Donovan over Wynalda thought Im not sure how good he would be. My first thought is that it would put Donovan in a good position for a lil down the road payback and that thought makes me smile (think about it for a minute).

    The one thing Sunil isnt getting (Hillary too) is that after a big loss, the people involved need to GO AWAY. Sunil must go.

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  9. He’ll quit this when he’s needed the most, like he’s always done.

    We need Freidel, Keller, Reyna, Earnie Stewart or someone else who is not Europhobic, or afraid of doing what is necessary to succeed in a tough environment. I would even take fellow headcase, John O’Brien.

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  10. With Donovan as president Altidore will learn how to control the ball, Bradley will get a soccer IQ, Howard will get his skills back, every position will be stacked 4 deep and youth clubs will stop being that black hole where talent goes to die.

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  11. What part of burn it all down don’t you get … run baby run, run, run, run, run … run baby run, run, run, run, run, run

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  12. Interesting. He’s definitely capable for the technical, actual soccer side of things. Now the actual politics/business side, that could be a problem.

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  13. Good. Landon would make a great leader for the soccer side of US Soccer. As long as he keeps Sunil in a filing cabinet to be brought out for his FIFA and WC2026 roles.

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