Landon Donovan
Landon Timothy Donovan (born March 4, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. Widely considered to be the best player to ever come out of the United States, he played as a withdrawn forward and winger for the LA Galaxy, Bayer Leverkusen, San Jose Earthquakes, Bayern Munich, and Everton. A member of the inaugural class of the U.S. Soccer residency program in Bradenton, Florida, Donovan was declared player of the tournament for his role in the United States U17 squad that finished fourth in the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship. Donovan later signed with the German team Bayer Leverkusen. In 2005, after six years with the club, the majority of which were spent on loan at the San Jose Earthquakes, Donovan moved to the Los Angeles Galaxy. He later returned to the Bundesliga for a three-month spell at the start of 2009 on loan to Bayern Munich, and twice went on short loans to English Premier League team Everton, in 2010 and 2012. In Major League Soccer, Donovan won a record six MLS Cups and is both the league's all-time top scorer with 144 goals and the league's all-time assists leader with 136. For the United States men's national team, Donovan is the all-time leader in scoring and assists, and has the most caps of all active players. 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. Donovan starred in the U.S. team that reached the quarter-finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup where he received the Best Young Player Award. His three goals in the 2010 FIFA World Cup made Donovan the highest scoring male American player in World Cup history and one of the three male American players to score in more than one World Cup (along with Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey). On January 15, 2015, Major League Soccer announced it was naming its MVP award after Donovan, The Major League Soccer MVP Award will now be named the Landon Donovan MVP Award.