Aimee
Traditionally, starting lineups in soccer feature players who wear jerseys numbered 1 through 11, with each number referring to a particular position. No. 1 is always the goalkeeper, for example. No. 3 is a stout defender. No. 9 is a lone striker.
But No. 10 is the most special. It is the playmaker’s jersey, the jersey worn by a team’s soul and pulse and engine. It is the jersey worn by the star who can sprinkle magic at any moment. Pelé wore No. 10. Diego Maradona wore No. 10. Lionel Messi wears No. 10. Neymar wears No. 10.
For much of the past eight years, Landon Donovan wore No. 10 for the United States national team. It was fitting: Donovan, more than any other player in American soccer history, was his country’s heartbeat. He worked wonders with the ball, to be sure, but it was always more than that with Donovan. He did not just shine for the United States; he guided it.
On Thursday, Donovan, 32, announced that he would retire at the end of the Major League Soccer season. Understandably, this immediately prompted a slew of retrospectives and discussion about how Donovan will be remembered by soccer fans, with opinions covering his breakout performance in the 2002 World Cup to his seminal goal in the 2010 World Cup to his stunning, if somewhat abrupt, separation from the national team in the weeks before this year’s tournament in Brazil.
In truth, it cannot be so simple. Donovan has long been the face of American soccer and, like Michael Jordan in basketball, he will remain one of its icons even in retirement. His legacy is one of originality, of experimentation; he was a trailblazer, but by necessity. Donovan did not follow any one path to mainstream sports stardom in the United States, but that was, at least in part, because there was no obvious path for a soccer player to follow.
