Landon Donovan and Everton were the perfect match and David Moyes demanded 'different level'

Tomorrow (March 7) marks the anniversary of what proved to be Landon Donovan’s last goal for Everton when he came off the bench to score in a 5-1 victory at home to Hull City in what was the Blues 5,000^th competitive game in 2010.

Although over a decade has passed since then and the USA international’s two loan spells at Goodison Park were fleeting, Donovan, who describes himself as “An Evertonian for life” remains a hugely-popular player among the club’s supporter base.

Over the coming days, the ECHO has produced a three-part special celebrating the Blues’ special bond with the California native.

Before embarking on a two-part exclusive interview with the man himself, Chris Beesley begins our mini-series by finding out what makes Donovan such a special person.

He spoke to Kevin Baxter, who has covered five World Cups, three Olympic Games, six World Series and a Super Bowl for the Los Angeles Times.

Ever since David Moyes’ bold proclamation on the day of his appointment as manager back in 2002, Everton has dubbed itself ‘The People’s Club.’

Landon Donovan is a ‘People person’.

In terms of longevity, the Blues were never a large part of Donovan’s playing career.

This is a man who made 426 appearances in Major League Soccer and turned out for the USA national team on 157 occasions.

He was never actually owned by Everton and over two loan spells he totalled just 22 matches but those bare statistics fail to do justice to the impact both parties had on each other.

Donovan and the Blues were in many ways kindred spirits.

Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times told the ECHO: “You know I’ve written about Everton a lot and to write about an English team in the States you have to find an additional reason beyond merely the soccer itself.

“Everton does so much charity work within the mile there by Goodison Park, things like the sleep out with the academy team to raise awareness.

“A lot of teams raise money and give to charity and that’s really good but I think Everton have taken it to the next level by participating with getting players to see what it’s like to be homeless.

“That’s kind of where Landon comes from too. He goes beyond writing the cheques, going to the supermarket openings and doing that kind of stuff – Landon lives it.”

Baxter believes that the demands of playing for Moyes’ Everton helped improve Donovan’s skill-set.

Blues fans are known for giving short shrift to those they deem to be shirking and the intensity of the Premier League required the man from Ontario, California to take his game to another level by embracing what is needed to succeed at Goodison Park.

Even if his focus on matches supposedly caused him to miss one of the unique features of the ground!

Baxter said: “One memory that speaks to me about Landon and his time at Everton, no matter how short it was, but it made him a better player.

“There was a MLS game and I was talking to one of the club officials and he told me: ‘Look at Landon right now’ and he wasn’t running full speed after the ball and was conserving his energy.

“The guy then said: ‘He can’t do that at Everton. Do you think the fans are going to let him get away with that? If he goes to Everton he’s going to have to play 110% for the full 90 minutes and it’s going to do him good.’

“I think that was correct. Landon played at a different level at Everton. Not because he didn’t respect MLS but that’s what was demanded of him and I do think his spells at Everton helped him as a player.

“It’s funny though, because I was talking to Landon one time and I said to him: ‘What’s Goodison Park like? They have the church there and it’s part of the stadium.’

“Landon said: ‘There’s a church at the stadium?’ He had no idea. I guess when he got to the stadium he was concentrating on football!”

Back in the USA though, there’s no doubting Donovan’s credentials and for now at least, Baxter insists he’s far from alone in considering him as ‘The GOAT.’

He said: “Landon is widely seen as being the best American player in history.

“He ties Clint Dempsey with most goals for the national team and has the most assists.

“He was the leader of the team that made it to the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, the best performance in modern times of a US team in the tournament.

“People talk about this new generation that we’ve got now and whether Christian Pulisic is going to be the best player or Weston McKennie but that’s maybe, we don’t know what’s going to happen with those guys yet.

“Until somebody knocks him off the perch, he’s the best player in American history and I don’t think there’s any debate on that, everyone will agree.”

Asked just what made Donovan such a great player, Baxter added: “He won six domestic titles in Major League Soccer – no other player has won that many – and until last season he’d scored the most goals in MLS history while he had a ton of assists as well.

“I think what made him a great player was his versatility. He could play on the wing, he could be a central midfielder, he could be a 9 or a false 9, and do about anything.

“Landon had some real leadership qualities too and a lot of times fans don’t always see that.

“I talked to a number of his team-mates from Los Angeles Galaxy and with the national team and they mentioned how he was a leader.

“A lot of players were upset when USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann left him out of the squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He might not have been a starter by then but his leadership in the locker room was really important.”

Such qualities have served Donovan well in his latest venture.

Having hung up his boots in 2018 after a brief spell with Mexican side Leon, Donovan, who is still a year shy of the big 4-0 having celebrated his 39^th birthday on Thursday, is now the owner-manager of San Diego Loyal where he also holds the title of executive vice-president.

Donovan and his team made the headlines last season for taking a stand against opponents abusing their players – even though it impacted on their on-the-field fortunes.

Baxter said: “Landon is a coach now in the USL Championship – the second tier of soccer in the USA, like our version of the Championship (but with no promotion and relegation with MLS) – and was a first-year coach last term.

“His team did not make the play-offs and the reason they didn’t was because they forfeited their last two games.

“In the first game, a player in the opposing team made some racist comments to a player on Landon’s team and even though they were winning the game, Landon pulled his team off the field and forfeited the game rather than continue to play against a team whose players were using racist comments.

“In the next game, that Landon’s team had to win, he pulled his team off the field at half-time after a player on the opposing team made a homophobic comment to an openly-gay player on Landon’s team.

“Landon took a vote from his players at half-time in the locker room and they decided not to play the second half if that opposing player was not ejected – and he wasn’t – and they forfeited their last two games.”

Baxter added: “There’s a lot of talk over why that was but I think it sealed Landon’s reputation for leadership and being a guy who would do the right thing rather than the easy thing and that’s another string to him that might get overlooked.

“There was the whole Black Lives Matter movement going on at the time and it was very big in California with lots of demonstrations but when the first incident happened, Landon’s comment were along the lines of: ‘Has nobody been paying attention?'

"'Are we just going to pay lip service to this stuff? We kneel before the game but are we not going to follow through with what this represents? The game starts and we’re throwing racist epitaphs around?’ So it was really a stand on principle.”

It remains to be seen whether Donovan will go on to coach at the elite level after his own playing career at the top but given the scope that his current role provides him with and past conversations they have had, Baxter is not so sure.

He said: “Landon said repeatedly as a player that he wanted to be a coach but he never wanted to be a pro coach.

“He said he wanted to coach kids because those are the people who are playing because they love the game.

“When you get to be a pro, you get ego and everything that goes with it.

“Sometimes if you’ve got a general manager or sporting director above you, you might not like the players they pick but I think Landon wanted to have total control of the whole operation if he was going to be responsible for the results on the field.”