Landon Donovan speaks out on free agency, salary cap

August 7, 6:58 PMBoston Pro Soccer ExaminerL.E. Eisenmenger

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Landon Donovan celebrates with David Beckham
Photo: AP

Today in Cambridge, Mass, Landon Donovan, David Beckham, and LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena spoke with the media about their Saturday night match with the New England Revolution and other recent issues.

Prominently, Donovan spoke about the proposed Player's Union's collective bargaining agreement's request for free agency. The current agreement expires this winter.

Boston Pro Soccer Examiner: With FC Dallas star Kenny Cooper going overseas, what do you think about the best new American talent leaving MLS, but players like the New England Revolution's Shalrie Joseph and Taylor Twellman not being allowed to leave?

Donovan: It’s important for players to do what they want and in Kenny’s case, I think he wanted to go, the time was right, and it made sense for him to go. As players we feel a little disappointed and upset that guys like Shalrie [Joseph] and Taylor [Twellman] don’t get the opportunity to go play in Europe because it was a big dream of theirs’ and your career is only so long and to not have that opportunity is disappointing, for sure.

There are a lot of things that we would like to see changed and the beauty is that the league probably agrees with us on a lot of them. Now it’s a matter of getting things done that we want, coming to an agreement that makes sense for everyone, but that’s going to be a long and probably not easy process. I have a lot of personal opinions on all that.

As for the salary cap, I think everybody would want that increased – the league, ourselves, the owners, the coaches. The only thing it does is make for the ability to get better talent, to keep American players home by paying them more money so it’s a win-win for everyone and I think everyone realizes that.

Boston Pro Soccer Examiner: Can you talk about the rumors of you going to Livorno?

Donovan: At this time of the season I have no interest in going anywhere. If that opportunity comes, maybe at the end of the year or some point next year, I’ll look at it seriously, but for now I’m excited to be here and happy to be here.

Reporter: How did you feel playing against Barcelona in front of the biggest crowd in the United States in 15 years?

Donovan: I think we’ve seen all summer long a lot of interest in soccer and that’s good, people are talking about it and that’s what we want. Whether we get 90-some thousand every time, all the time - probably not, but the fact that people are interested, people are watching, and we have a platform and an ability to show what we can do, is good for us and we welcome it.

The thing that we’ve done this summer, is that there has been a steady momentum of soccer. People are interested and I’ve noticed since I’ve been back from South Africa a noticeable uptake in interest, people noticing us, recognizing us, talking to us, talking about soccer. It’s on TV all day and we like that, we enjoy that.

Reporter: What are you expecting from the match with the Revolution tomorrow?

Donovan: We’ve historically done pretty well here with both teams [USMNT and Galaxy] and we expect the same tomorrow.
 

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