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Club Leon officially parts ways with Landon Donovan

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Former U.S. international Landon Donovan could see his career coming to a close in the near future.

Club Leon, Donovan’s team in 2018, officially announced they would be parting company with the 36-year-old according to Goal. Donovan came out of retirement a second time and joined the Liga MX side in January.

However, he failed to make much of an impact with the club as he totaled 98 minutes of playing time in five appearances. Donovan’s original contract was scheduled to run through 2018 but Leon has confirmed they would be parting company ahead of the league season.

“Landon Donovan and Club Leon have agreed to part ways and to not validate the signed contract for next season,” read a club statement.

“During the time that Landon spent with our team, he has been exemplary in all aspects. The club loses a legendary professional in the world of sports that leaves an indelible mark in our club.”

Donovan won six Major League Soccer titles during his career, and is the joint all-time leading scorer for the U.S. Men’s National Team with 57 goals.

It is unclear if Donovan will retire or continue playing elsewhere.

Comments

  1. This appears to be connected to LD’s twitter storm and Wells Fargo cash grab. I bet he’s regretting his little outburst. If he loves mexico so much maybe him and alexi lalas can go start a mexico city galaxy team together. I for one will never support el tri, their fans throw cups of urine.

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  2. Looking back at history Landon was part of the greatest US win 16 years ago yesterday, how funny is it that Mexico’s World Cup victory over Germany comes on the anniversary of their 0-2 loss to the US. Maybe they have exercised a few demons getting past the round of 16 will be their biggest test. Give Mexico credit even though I can’t stand them.

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  3. Much as I love Landon I never understood why Jurgen got so much beef leaving him off the team. He was not in form. Love Landon but its time to retire for good. 2002 WC team still my favorite American team

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    • oh he could have played in wc when he was 32.

      my two cents: specifically, jurgen’s insistance that all players maintain peak (mid season) fitness in the mls off-season and show to january usmnt camp in peak shape in 2014 was not compatible with mls players in general and with landon in particular. so the mls players show up to camp in january 2014 and jurgen tells them things like “you won’t play in the wc because a) you play in mls and b) you didn’t come to january camp in peak condition.” so i think mentally this has the effect of causing certain players perhaps like landon to feel frustrated. actually, there is nothing wrong with landon or mls or its spring – summer schedule, the problem is WHY DID GULATI HIRE A FOREIGN COACH WHO DOESN’T UNDERSTAND AMERICAN SOCCER CULTURE? as a player, jurgen’s credentials are world class. and i’m sure his views on soccer are in line with those of his peers in europe. but this isn’t europe, this is the usa, and we have our own soccer culture and identity here and the soccer norms are i guess a little different here than in europe. we don’t need a foreigner to come here and tell everyone they are wrong. what we need is an AMERICAN COACH who thinks like we think, who feels like we feel, who knows that mls is on spring-summer schedule and the wc is in june and the January camp is just supposed to be a little light training to work out the cobwebs after i good, fitful rest in december. but what is easier? to explain this to a foreigner who doesn’t understand? or to just HIRE AN AMERICAN COACH who was BORN KNOWING IT? now sunil has stepped down and we have ernie stewart. i really believe ernie and dan flynn are going to make a good decision and hire an american coach. but either way, ernie is american, so at least we have an american gm. we’re half-way there…

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      • correction: there is nothing wrong with landon or mls or its spring – FALL schedule

      • in response to anthony, you are right, that mentality exists and is out there. stay in top shape all year. i think differently. i disagree. and i would even go so far as to say it is NOT HEALTHY for your body to try to stay in peak shape all year. the mls schedule goes from spring until fall. wc’s and other big tournaments happen in summer. i think it’s natural to allow – and even to expect – that our athletes in mls will take advantage of the natural timing of the break around December every year to “let the field lay fallow” for a few weeks and simply let the body rest. i hope that this becomes the norm in our American soccer culture (if it isn’t already). i hope that ernie stewart, our new gm, will embrace the idea. i hope ernie hires an American coach who was born knowing it already and thinks this idea is just “common sense”. and i hope that what happened to landon in 2014 NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

    • so anyway, cylo, i think that because of what jurgen told landon and the other mls players, landon probably felt very frustrated and that affected his training and his fitness. i think jurgen caused it. i think if you just put a “normal” American coach in there in 2014, sigi schmid for example, someone who understands our soccer norms and culture here in the usa, then this doesn’t happen and landon is in peak form at age 32 just in time for the wc. it was the coach, not landon.

      just my opinion.

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      • What kind of crack are you smoking??? They were professionals!!! You stay in sharp all the time. Every appearance is an audition. Hell, I played for a naturally ranked club team. We had to be in shape year round, we had tryouts every fall where your sport was up.a professional is supposed to be ready. You take time off to let your body heal not chill out.

      • Anthony – Periodization has been a pretty huge thing for the last few years, so, no, players do not stay is “peak” condition year round.

  4. ld is 36, so his glory days are all behind him, yes? you know what would be fun? if landon still has a soccer itch to scratch, i LOVE to see him play for one season with freddie adu in the second division at las vegas lights fc. (someone pls make the retirement league joke. yes, i’m sure ld would retire after one or two seasons there and everyone would know this from the start.) i don’t care if it’s second division, i want to see freddie doing give and goes with ld and i don’t care which one puts the ball in the back of the net, it would just be fun stuff to watch. they’d probably kick some div 2 tail. =D

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    • landon also used to be like a spokesman for las vegas to get an mls club franchise, so he seems to like the city and have some personal connections there.

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  5. This is like Jona Gonzalez all over again. Pledge your allegiance to Mexico, then they unceremoniously dump you the first chance they get… Ok, I don’t have all the facts, but the similarities are striking, no?

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