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Donovan pens new MLS contract

Landon Donovan 4 (ISIphotos.com)

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Landon Donovan is set to embark on a new career adventure in England, but not before securing his future here in the United States.

The Los Angeles Galaxy has signed Donovan to a lucrative new multi-year contract that will push him into the company of Major League Soccer's Millionaires Club with the likes of David Beckham, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Freddie Ljungberg, sources told SBI on Wednesday.

Details of the new deal were not made available, but Donovan is expected to receive a considerable salary increase that will put him on par with the league's Designated Players. The Galaxy do not need second Designated Player slot because Donovan was grandfathered into the rule since he was already making well above the league maximum salary when the Designated Player rule was implemented by MLS.

What does this new deal mean for Donovan's potential future in Europe?

We are willing to bet that the new contract includes a modest fee-release clause that will allow Donovan some more freedom to make a transfer move if quality offers come in this summer after the 2010 World Cup.

The Galaxy will announce the new deal, along with Donovan's winter loan move to Everton, at a press conference in Los Angeles this afternoon.

What do you think of this development? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I would be surprised if this is anything different than what Landon said. I don’t think Landon cares to bs much. I think he enjoys LA and has a family there. And, I think we can all pretty much let go of our hope that Landon will finally become the best player he can be. Two and a half months in the EPL and the rest of the time in MLS will not make him a better player on a long-term scale.

    I agree that this deal makes him less attractive to other clubs. His value to MLS is too high and I don’t think they would have created some ‘reasonable value’ clause for him. I also don’t think Landon and his agent, together, would have cared much about giving MLS a greater fee and brokered some deal that had the interests of the league in mind.

    I guess I’ve just started to let go of the notion that Landon will ever live up to his potential. And, that’s gonna have to be okay. He can stay in MLS. I like watching him play. I’m a tad less excited about him after this deal, but hey. Whatever. I hope he does well in England. I’ll start looking forward to the time when a new Landon Donovan is coming up through the youth ranks. Maybe he’ll fulfill his promise for us fans.

    Good for Donovan. He’ll be set for life. He deserves it. Thanks to him for supporting and dedicating to the league.

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  2. Messi left Argentina because he wasn’t going to get paid there. He’s known that since he was 5 years old. It’s not a comparable situation.

    That’s because by the time Riquelme left Europe he was over the hill. He was also a prima donna, club house lawyer, head case, club house cancer,whatever so yeah everyone forgot about him and good riddance.

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  3. tg,

    Does case by case basis mean anything to you? How about, “different strokes for different folks?”.

    In case they don’t hgow about Landon and Clint are two different people and two different players. What is good for one is not necessarily good for the other. One man’s treasure is another man’s garbage.

    Have I quoted enough cliches to make a point to you?

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  4. David,

    “if he can live with it”

    What a steaming pile of cow manure. You make it sound as if Donovan not going to Europe permanently is the equivalent of getting away with a hit and run homicide.

    Donovan is currently the single most irreplaceable USMNT player. Without him, US hopes for a good run in SA are lot less likely. At this point, the best a fan can hope for is that a few months with Everton will sharpen him up as much as possible for South Africa. And he is doing this. So he is doing all he can to be as good as possible for this Cup. Beyond that he owes you nothing.

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  5. Charles,

    Did you ever notice how many French and Dutch players play in the England and Spain? I hadn’t noticed they were second tier soccer powers. Did you ever notice how many Brazilians and Argentinians play everywhere? I guess they are second tier soccer powers too?

    Having lots of your best players play abroad doesn’t make your national teams second rate.

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  6. here on the internet, we usually restrict our white knighting to pretty women. it’s refreshing to see someone proudly advertising their alternative orientation.

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  7. Couldn’t agree more on the unfortunate side-effect of anonymous speech on the Internet…everyone acts like a-holes. And, yes, John Sweeny was being a bit of a douche with his mocking tone.

    However, since I told him he was wrong on tuesday, I felt I should probably admit he was right yesterday.

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  8. I just read on cnnsi.com an article from the AP about Donovan’s resigning with the Galaxy. Donovan says, “The Galaxy made it clear very early they weren’t going to sell me.” I thought his contract was up and if it wasn’t then this another indication of how MLS screws it’s own players with the single entity. If the Galaxy refuse to sell a player like Donovan than what does that say to players coming up. It says if a player like Donovan can be treated so badly how are they going to treat some kid hungry to prove himself. It’s time for young players to say screw MLS and take their chances elsewhere.

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  9. But Landon is not Adu, Altidore, or Johnson. And that’s the point. When those three left, no one was saying they were the best the US had to offer. I’m not saying Landon is the best the US has, but people seem to think he is. And if he’s the best, why wouldn’t he want to put his talents against the best the world has to offer? Do you think anyone would be talking about Messi if he was in Argentina? Look at Riquelme, without a doubt one of the best world class midfielders out there. The minute he left Europe he was basically forgotten.

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  10. Very smart move by MLS. And this move is certainly not about making the league better, because it’s a money move. If they sell him later, they make more money. He stays, they sell more shirts plain and simple. As far as league improvement, the truth of the matter is that Landon staying here is going to keep another youngster from coming through the ranks in LA…but on a player level, I don’t really get his motive. I mean what player doesn’t want to be playing against the best players in the world? The best players in the world are not in MLS. People can talk all about how he’s still a good player in MLS, but where is the hunger? Who doesn’t want the chance to play against Barca, Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool, Milan, in the champions league? Or play to your best and be considered world player of the year? Maybe he feels staying in MLS is helping the league and he can be remembered as a great American player like Reyna, Ramos et al, but down the road when you look at the world’s best players, he’ll never be considered that. Even the Brazilian league is better than MLS, and those players always look to playing for Milan or Barca. At the end of the day, athlete’s want to be the best and play against the best. That’s why people come from china and places to play in the NBA. I just don’t get it.

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  11. I wonder if Donovan lacks the intestinal fortitude to pursue a career against the best players in soccer by signing this long term contract with MLS. I can’t help but feel that arguably the best player in MLS if not the best player the U.S. has produced doesn’t have what it takes or maybe he’s just afraid to prove himself against the great players in Europe. His European career has so far consisted of two failed stints at Bayer Leverkusen, an unsuccessful loan at Bayern Munich and now a short term loan at Everton. Donovan had the chance to prove he truly was the best soccer player this country has ever produced. Now he is settling for being the best player in a third tier league in the world.

    I have been a fan of Donovan’s since I first heard of this prodigy from Redlands (CA). I’ve been a fan of MLS and since the inception of the league and a Galaxy fan almost as long. I have to admit to being a D.C. United supporter when the league started. I have always wanted Donovan and MLS to succeed. Donovan has gone as far as he can go in MLS. He has nothing left to prove in MLS. MLS is riding with expansion and the success of the Beckham experiment, at least as much as it pertains only to David Beckham and Chuatemoc Blanco.

    Now however I have lost respect for Donovan and what appears to be his cowardice. I know the Galaxy and MLS did what they needed to do for the team and the league to succeed, but if this league is going to succeed it needs to let it’s top players go abroad and succeed against the top players in the world. Donovan, and MLS failed here.

    I can only hope that I’m wrong and Ives is right about this contract having an opt out clause for Donovan, because if does not Donovan doesn’t deserve the respect of his fans.

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  12. He just took the plush job, except he knows what to expect. I would personally rather strive for greatness than live in mediocrity. Thank you kind sir.

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  13. thank god an american gets what he deserves in america. mls needs to keep us stars and if landon finds his greatest success in mls i will be a happy man. he is worth going to toyota park to see.

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  14. No offense but if your boss offered to double your salary, you wouldn’t take it? Or would you take the other plush job where you have absolutely no idea what the work environment is like? Just saying.

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  15. everyone should stop hating on Donovan. For whatever reason he chose to stay in MLS thats his own decision. Living in L.A myself and with all the benefits etc it is pretty awesome. I wish him the best.

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  16. First off, the quality of Argentina’s and Brazil’s domestic leagues are much higher than ours, so to me it’s kind of a moot point.

    How many of England’s firt team choices play outside of England? How many of Germany’s first team choices play outside of Germany? Spain? Portugal? France? You get the point.

    The best and smartest way to s strong National Team is a strong domestic league.

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  17. Show me the money.

    Donovan had no chance of ever transferring to Bayern because they would have had to pay about 10 million on the fee.

    If he left now, I would hazard to guess that the fee would now be less than 4 million (conservative estimate).

    I can’t imagine how this new clause lowers his price.

    I understand how people can see the good in this, but I can’t.

    The only thing I can understand is maybe he gets some kind of special insurance policy for major injuries that could occur in MLS leading up to the World Cup. That’s the only thing that would make sense to me. I can certainly see how this is good for MLS and ESPN America.

    If I were him I’d try to bring my price down as low as possible. After all, as an example, Ballack was a great player when he went to Chelsea. But he was also free. Who knows if they would have taken him if he had a price tag on him.

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  18. The issue here isn’t what sort of credit John Sweeny does or doesn’t deserve for something he wrote yesterday. The issue here is his comment of today, in which he misconstrued events to gratuitously slam someone.

    If he simply wants credit, then he should write, “Yay, I was right! Congratulate me!” But that wasn’t the thrust of his comment.

    Ives doesn’t need me to defend him, I’m sure. But I’m just getting tired of the mean-edged tone and sense of entitlement on the Internet. I mean, we’re in somebody’s virtual home here. Have a little respect.

    Oh, and “slander” is not solely a legal term. Especially outside a legal context…

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  19. Give John Sweeny credit, where it is due. He made the right call yesterday. I’m not sure I saw anything ‘slanderous’ in there, plus since it was written and not spoken it would have been “libelous” anyway…but that is another matter.

    Hopefully, we were not completely wrong however, and the speculation above is right. This is more about making sure that MLS has some leverage post WC (or even preWC) to get a decent transfer fee for LD and it gave LD a clear way out that MLS couldn’t squander.

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  20. “Perhaps Landon ACTUALLY WANTS to stay in LA.”

    That would directly contradict what Landon Donovan has publicly been saying for over a year now.

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