Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By RYAN TOLMICH
U.S. Men’s National Team manager Jurgen Klinsmann has had to deal with the fallout of his decision to leave Landon Donovan off the final 23-man roster for the World Cup in the last 24 hours, but before speaking with the media, he had to deal with his son.
After news broke of Donovan’s omission, Klinsmann’s son Jonathan took to social media to give his reaction to the news on Twitter, a reaction that lacked context, prudence, and any understanding of the situation at USMNT camp. The backlash he received from his Twitter followers may have been bad, but the response from his father just might have been worse.
“I was hugely disappointed,” said Jurgen Klinsmann in response to his son’s damaging tweet. “I called him right away. He realized just a few minutes after that what he had done. He came out of school kind of fooling around with his classmates and it kind of just went off on Twitter, not being aware that he’s actually followed on Twitter.”
The German-born head coach went on to say that his son meant no ill will towards Donovan, as the youngster is actually a big fan of the LA Galaxy forward.
“He has huge a admiration for Landon,” said the elder Klinsmann. “He’s actually been a big fan of his since many, many years ago. He actually has his jersey in his room and he realized what he’s done. He was devastated yesterday.
“Obviously, as a father, you put him in line and he owes him a huge, huge apology,” Klinsmann continued. “That was highly disrespectful and I think he got his biggest social media lesson that he could imagine, but it was very disappointing.”
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