Landon Donovan back to Soccer Betting Favorites Galaxy. The LA Galaxy is the odds-on soccer betting favorite to win the 2016 MLS Cup, and the return of the greatest male American soccer player of all-time to the team does no favors to the remaining squads. For people who only started to bet on soccer after 2014, Landon Donovan has won a record six MLS Cups, and is the league’s all-time top scorer with 144 goals and the league’s all-time assists leader with 136.
Moreover, Donovan is the all-time leader in scoring and assists for the United States men’s national team. He may have won the Major League Soccer MVP Award only once, but it’s telling that Major League Soccer changed the name of the award to the Landon Donovan MVP Award following his retirement.
The Los Angeles club announced that it had signed Donovan as a free agent for the remaining six games of the 2016 season, in which the Galaxy is currently third in the Western Conference with 44 points, behind FC Dallas and LA Galaxy – so soccer betting fans need not despair just yet. As for the man himself, Donovan explained that injuries to Jelle Van Damme, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes, and the departure of Nigel de Jong to Galatasaray convinced him to deus ex machina himself back to the team. “I care so deeply about the Galaxy organization, and I believe I could help in a small way to aid the team in its quest for a 6th MLS championship,” he wrote.
“Further, the opportunity to have my son Talon on the field with me after a game was a feeling that I would never be able to replicate.” There is a caveat, however, so don’t break out the champagne quite yet, either. As Donovan added, he and Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena “both agreed that if this was going to happen, the expectations would be minimal and he would use me in situations that made sense for the team. ” Donovan said he was happy with retirement, and that the idea of coming back seemed crazy at first, but it could be exciting and fun, as well as helpful to a team that’s near and dear to his heart.
Landon Timothy Donovan is a 34 year old soccer forward. Born and raised in Ontario, California, Donovan started his professional career in 199 with German team Bayer Leverkusen. He could never really acclimate himself to the Teutonic way of life, which actually worked in his favor. Donovan was loaned to the San Jose Earthquakes of the MLS in 2001, where he found immediate – and needless to say, long-standing – success, especially when he was traded to the Galaxy.
The rest, as they say, is history – the question is, will history repeat himself? “I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with my family and close friends over the past several days, and we all agreed that this would be a wonderful opportunity and a win-win situation for everyone,” Donovan wrote. Hopefully, that includes soccer betting fans.