For the second straight loan, Landon Donovan has performed at a high level for Everton, and for a second straight loan, he's been rewarded with the club's Player of the Month honors.
Donovan captured Everton's award for January, replicating the feat that he accomplished back in January of 2010. Donovan was credited with five assists in Everton's eight games during January. He played every minute of every one of those matches, starting on the right flank and injecting life into a previously dormant attack.
His final sendoff will be Saturday at Goodison Park, as Everton welcomes Blackpool for an FA Cup fifth-round battle. In his last finale for Everton, Donovan scored a goal and was carried by teammate Jack Rodwell toward the supporters, who serenaded him with chants of "USA!" He'll hope to end this loan spell in a similar fashion.
The loan might not be the end of his Everton career, though, as Donovan expressed an interest in returning to the club to in a recent interview with Reuters. He made it clear in his comments that he's firmly committed to the Galaxy until the end of his current contract, which has two years remaining on it.
What do you make of Donovan winning Everton's award again? Hope to see him one day move permanently to Everton?
Share your thoughts below.
I think what Donovan has done consistently with Everton proves how impactful he can be. Personally, I enjoyed watching him stand up to Chelsea’s Ivanovich who’s a total bully, and i enjoyed watching him beat Man City, proving that money can’t buy you every victory.
Nice job, Donovan!
Such a shame Landon signed that contract w/ LA. I remember thinking at the time that he was crazy.
LD might be the only player with 50 and 50. Looking at the list of players with 50 international goals maybe Pele, Kocsis, and Puskas also have 50 assists, but I couldn’t find the numbers. Thierry Henry had 51 goals and 29 assists.
50 and 50 is an insane stat.
Champions league point notwithstanding, all of you MLS apologist must acknowledge that the talent/competition in the BPL blows away the talent in MLS and Concacaf in general. Im not a hater but lets be realistic here.
Well played sir.
I understand practice with no strings attached, Shea, or renting to own, G. John, but sending over a marquee player like Landon or Henry to actually play for an EPL team on loan, with no intent to sell, is letting another team and league get the value of our asset — without having to purchase him — while putting Landon in a position where maybe he’s exhausted by the end of our season, where, you know, he gets paid to play.
I could understand your argument back in the day when MLS was a new, rinky-dink league. But this is now a league that sells players like Altidore, Dempsey, et al. for millions. Our players are in demand in Mexico and across Europe. Having reached that level, I don’t think we should be loaning out our players to other teams without intent to buy, particularly to teams like Arsenal (Henry) or Villa (Keane) where an argument could be made about who gets to bask in any success they have.
You rattle off a list of shop-window younger players like John, they want to kick the tires, fine. But the marquee names, the pride of the league? You don’t dole those out in the offseason…..
Six assists, should have had seven. He pretty much set up every Everton goal except for that crazy one from Tim Howard over a month long span. Played 90 a game, right from the start, even though he joined them in his off-season, and was immediately one of the best players on the team. Won player of the month again. I think LD has proved all he needs to prove in England. He hit two home runs, he should leave on a high note. Stay in MLS, enjoy the warm weather, who cares if haters don’t like it? What does he have to prove at this point? He has shown he can go to England whenever he wants and play extremely well. He will stay in MLS, win Supporters Shields, MLS Cups, and maybe even CCL or an MVP. And he will eventually set the all time goals record. That is his legacy, not the couple months in Everton every few years to prove haters like Brad Friedel wrong. He will be remembered as the face of MLS, the LA Galaxy, and the US national team (where he will finish his career with four World Cups, and over 50 goals and over 50 assists, find the list of players who have done that). That is some legacy.
Isn’t that what you haters said two years ago?
Ajax doesn’t have to advertise. Their reputation as a top player development camp is well established.
And for the purposes of my example, Ajax would be interested in picking up rough products from MLS and developing them into highly sought after commodities to sell to bigger buyers.
As others have pointed out, the US are a relatively new source of raw talent. Having MLS products like Demps and LD do well over seas are likely directly responsible for the chances guys like Shea, G John, Gonzo, and Ream are getting.
Well done Landon. He hit the pitch, out of season and played the first and every game well for 90 minutes. Quite impressive, honor deserved.
Well earned. Hasn’t had a bad game and has had quite a few spectacular ones. He’s looked the best man on multiple occasions.
He’s playing well enough, for the second stint there, that I wouldn’t be surprised at this point to see a bigger club come in. Relatively, he’s a cheap option for a highly productive player.