Landon Timothy Donovan (born March 4, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player who is the manager, co-founder, and vice-president of soccer operations for USL Championship side San Diego Loyal SC, and also strategic advisor for English side Lincoln City. He was voted as the best U.S. soccer player of all time by a poll conducted by ESPN. Major League Soccer have ranked Donovan as the greatest American soccer player of all time.
A former forward, he holds numerous individual records in Major League Soccer (MLS) and for the United States national team and is regarded as the greatest U.S. men's soccer player of all time. Donovan signed for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1999. In 2005, after six years with Leverkusen, the majority of which were spent on loan with the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS, Donovan moved back to the United States permanently to sign with the Los Angeles Galaxy. He later returned to Germany for a loan with Bayern Munich, and twice went on short loans to English Premier League club Everton in 2010 and 2012. He retired as a player in 2014, but made a brief comeback with LA Galaxy late in the 2016 season and then in 2018 to play for Club Leon. He further played one season with the San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League.
In MLS, Donovan won a record six MLS Cups and is the league's all-time assists leader with 136. The Major League Soccer MVP Award has been renamed the Landon Donovan MVP Award in his honor. For the United States men's national team, Donovan is the all-time leader in assists and tied with Clint Dempsey as all-time leader in scoring, and is the second-most-capped player of his country. Donovan is the only American player to reach the 50 goals/50 assists mark. He is a four-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award (the only man to do so and the first man to win in consecutive years), as well as the only seven-time winner of the Honda Player of the Year award.
This page also has a version in other languages : Лэндон Донован (russian)