Maybe yesterday's announcement of Landon Donovan's retirement at the end of this MLS season shouldn't have come as a surprise to any of us. Though Donovan is just 32 and could conceivably still have some very good years left in him, we have borne witness to his sometimes fluctuating passion for the game and his longing for a meaningful life that exists well outside of the bounds of white lines on a field.
It is indeed a seminal moment in American soccer, this retirement of a player who, over the span of more than a decade, was often able to transcend the collective gaze of soccer fans in this country and, in doing so, became something of a household name even amongst those sports fans who knew next to nothing about soccer. In a crowded American sporting landscape in which soccer has, in relative terms, only recently begun to captivate the multitudes, such an accomplishment only serves as a microcosm for what he has meant to the sport here.
As if often the case, we as sports fans are often only able to fully grasp a legendary player's true gravitas in retrospect and through hindsight. Perhaps we should not do ourselves such a disservice in this case and, accordingly, bask in Donovan's greatness to full effect in these next few months of the MLS season.
It is quite hard to imagine that we will see another American player as decorated as Donovan for quite some time. His goal-scoring record in MLS should stand for the long-forseeable future, and his haul of trophies, whether in the form of MLS Cups, Gold Cups, or the US Open Cup, truly represent just how vital he was to all of his teams, whether club or country.
Pinning the evolution of American soccer in the last 15 years or so on one player is far too simplistic and short-sighted, but we certainly can't overstate the fact that Donovan was, in many ways, the right man to emerge at a time when US Soccer needed it most. Remember, the national team was in something of a transitional period after the debacle of France '98 and sorely in need of an injection of hope and promise in those early days of Bruce Arena's reign. Donovan provided that, and the 2002 World Cup was the stage on which he was able to announce just how special he would be for the better part of a generation.
And yet, despite all of the glory and accolades he has garnered in his career, Donovan has been a rather polarizing character at times in the United States. Many lamented the fact that playing in Europe wasn't the most pressing item on his agenda. More labelled him as cowardly because of this, and his successful loan spells at Everton, however abbreviated, caused these detractors to wonder, quite vociferously, "what if?"
Ultimately, however, did he really need to apologize for his desires to play here domestically? Hardly. There is something to be said for a man who, regardless of his walk of life, only longs to live life on his terms and how he sees fit. He gave the game so much here, and yet in the same breath, owed nothing to anybody.
So it is, in this upcoming retirement, that Donovan continues to live and create the life that suits him well. He should be applauded for putting his own mental well-being and state of mind above all else, though whether this will be the case remains to be seen.
He's stepping away to start a new chapter in life, but we would be wrong to not appreciate the pages that he has shared with all of us. They were full of the most inspiring of prose.
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