Landon Donovan (birth name Landon Timothy Donovan) was born on March 4, 1982 in Ontario, California, USA. He is an American professional soccer player at the
Los Angeles Galaxy and the joint all-time leading scorer for the U.S. National Team (along with Eric Wynalda).
Biography and Career :
He is the son of Timothy Donovan, and Donna Kenney Cash and he grew up in Redlands, California where he attended Redlands East Valley High School. After he played in US Soccer Residency program at Bradenton with 4 of his current U.S team mates including Oguchi Onyewu, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey he signed his first professional contract with Bayer Leverkusen.
The period that he played in Germany wasn't very goo
d for him and he didn't play very much so he was loaned to San Jose Earthquakes, playing in Major League Soccer, for the 2001 season. He played for San Jose more than 100 games and he scored 46 goals so he became one of the most American players.
In his first season and in 2003 they succeeded to win the championship title. After four seasons for San Jose Earthquakes, Bayer Leverkusen announced that Landon would come back in Germany. He returned but again wasn't a good time for him so he decided to play again in MLS. He signed a contract with Los Angeles Galaxy and in his first season there they won the championship title.
His good play made that a lot of clubs from Europe get interest for him: Fulham, Celtic F.C., Portsmouth, Liverpool, Hannover 96, Levante and Atletico Madrid. For National Team he played 96 games and scored 34 times. After Claudio Reyna's retirement he became the new number 10 in the team and now is considered the best American soccer player ever.
Trivia :
- Height: 173cm
- Position playing: midfielder or forward
- Number: 10
- His nicknames are: Baby Jesus, Cakes or Beast.
- From December 31, 2006 he is married with
Bianca Kajlich.
- He is the captain of LA Galaxy and the captain of American National Team.
Honors :
Major League Soccer:
MLS All-Time Best XI: 2005
San Jose Earthquakes:
MLS Cup (2): 2001, 2003
Los Angeles Galaxy:
MLS Cup (1): 2005
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (1): 2005
United States:
CONCACAF Gold Cup (3): 2002, 2005, 2007
U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year (2): 2003, 2004
Honda Player of the Year (4): 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007
International:
2002 World Cup Best Young Player
Image Source : flickr.com
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