Landon Donovan is a 24-year-old professional soccer player and one of the greatest American soccer players ever. Donovan was sufficiently talented to win a contract with a top German team at age 17, but despite expectations that he would be one of the first Americans to break into the Bundesliga, the highly competitive German league, and compete at a world-class level, he had a generally unsuccessful experience in Germany during 2004-05 and returned to the much less rigorous American professional ranks.
Donovan's poor showing in Germany seemed to result from a number of factors, including homesickness. But he's been criticized by a number of American soccer coaches, players and fans for his failure to succeed in that environment. They contend that rather than dominating Major League Soccer here at home without breaking a sweat, Donovan should be pushing himself harder to compete in the Bundesliga in order to make himself a better player and by so doing to improve the chances of the U.S. national team. Recent quotes from Donovan in an interview with Reuters' Erik Kirschbaum suggest that Donovan agrees that going to Europe would have that effect:
I'd probably become a better soccer player just from the day-in, day-out grind of it there... [But] I wouldn't be a better person. I wouldn't be a happy person. I'd be pretty miserable.
So what should Donovan do? It depends on who--and what--he's working for, but that's a more complicated question than it seems at first. Is he working only for himself? And what does that mean: Maximizing his happiness by staying at home, or getting the most out of his talents by returning to Europe? Making good money by staying here, or making great money by returning to Europe? Will he be most fulfilled if he stays within his comfort zone, where he knows he can succeed, or will he one day wish he'd tried to compete on a bigger stage? And what about Donovan's obligations to others with an investment in his success? Should their perspective affect his decision?
Obviously, I don't raise the issue because I think we can answer these questions for Donovan; only he can answer them for himself. But I think they're worth asking of ourselves. Who and what are we working for? More to come.
Photo of Landon Donovan courtesy of nwistheone. Yay Flickr.
