PHILADELPHIA— Landon Donovan is synonymous with Major League Soccer and now the retired LA Galaxy legend will have his name forever etched on one of the league’s most prestigious awards.
Major League Soccer announced on Thursday ahead of the 2015 MLS SuperDraft that starting in 2015 the league’s Most Valuable Player award will be christened the “Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player award”. Incidentally, the league’s all-time scoring king only won the award once as a player during the 2009 season as he led the LA Galaxy to the MLS Cup final.
Prior to the announcement, the league displayed a series of video tributes to a packed crowd that included members of technical staffs from each of MLS’ 20 teams. Perhaps the most touching homage was a video of heartfelt messages from the retired player’s former teammates, coaches, and family which left Donovan at a loss for words afterward.
"This feels different because I saw all the people who have been with me from day one and that makes you appreciate what you put into it,” Donovan told reporters afterward. “I'm just very grateful to the commissioner for this and for my family, who made incredible sacrifices in their life and this is something that they can always see and look at. They deserve this [honor] as much as I do."
The move to honor Donovan in such a manner was an easy one according to MLS commissioner Don Garber who needed only to make a quick phone call to the former Galaxy player to get his approval. In fact, the commissioner told reporters that the league had planned on announcing the creation of the award prior to the Galaxy’s participation in MLS Cup.
"This was just a no-brainer for us," Garber said. "He is our Michael Jordan — I've said this many times. He's our Wayne Gretzky, our Derek Jeter.
"I'm very fond of him — he's a good man," Garber continued. "Landon put us on the map here. His play both for the league and the national team said, 'We can get this, we can do this, we can stand toe-to-toe, we can be a rising country, a country to be contended with around the world.' That's the reason we named the MVP trophy after him. Without Landon, there's no MLS the way it is today."
Donovan will now join the pantheon of great sports figures to have their names etched on prestigious awards like college football’s John Heisman, the NBA’s Bill Russell and college basketball’s John Wooden. For a player who has made a legacy on shying away from the spotlight, the idea of his being immortalized in such a manner filled the retired Galaxy legend with pride.
“It’s pretty special because you hear the name “Heisman” or you hear [NHL’s] “Conn Smythe,” and before this I never really wondered why the awards were named that way,” said Donovan. “It’s pretty cool and long after I’m gone, people will Google my name or using whatever technology there is and they’ll be able to say, so that’s who Donovan is and that’s what he did. And hopefully, they’ll draw some inspiration.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
