Landon Donovan Tries Germany ... Again
Just because our new, possibly Socialist President likes soccer doesn’t mean that we are any good at it. ↵↵A case in point: The best American soccer player for quite some time now, Landon Donovan, is currently auditioning for a top Bundesliga club, Bayern Munich, and there’s good reason to doubt whether he’s going to be able to cut the German mustard. ↵
↵↵It was a portentous coincidence yesterday that had Donovan winning his fifth Honda Award as the top U.S. footballer of the year on the same day that his U.S. club, the L.A. Galaxy, announced that Donovan was doing a 10-day training stint with Munich with an eye towards joining the German side. ↵
↵↵Should it come to pass, it would be Donovan’s third tour of duty in the Bundesliga. His previous two efforts came with Bayern Leverkusen, signing with the venerable German team as a 16-year-old before coming back home to become a star in the MLS. He made another effort with Leverkusen in 2005, but it was an unsatisfactory situation for both sides, and he was forced to return to the U.S. with his tail between his legs once again.↵
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↵Now he is eying Bayern Munich, likely because of his relationship with Munich’s coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who was once an adviser with the Galaxy. His trip overseas isn’t inspiring a great deal of confidence Stateside. In this article at Goal.com, U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer, Eric Wynalda, the first American ever to play in the Bundesliga, doubts that Donovan’s connection to Klinsmann will be enough to ensure his survival in the notoriously brutal league. “What advice would I give him?,” Wynalda says. “Jump. Jump and run fast.”↵
↵↵Donovan has made no secret of his intention to head to a top European club after this season in the MLS, be it a German, Spanish or English side. Unfortunately, his status as America’s finest player doesn’t seem to be earning him much more than a tryout with the European big boys. ↵
↵↵So not only does Obama inherit a devastated economy, two wars and a medical system on the brink of disaster. Our new Soccer-Fan-in-Chief also inherits a nation whose biggest soccer star is little more than chopped liver being served up lukewarm to the bullies of Germany. ↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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