LA Galaxy and U.S. National Team legend Landon Donovan hinted in an exclusive interview with Goal.com that he may be interested in pursuing a career in coaching at a professional level.
The 33-year-old has stated an interest in coaching since retiring from professional soccer last year. Donovan has served as a consultant for the U.S. Under-20's earlier this year and coached for the first time in July when he led the MLS Homegrown squad at the 2015 Chipotle MLS Homegrown Game.
In recent weeks, however, Donovan has seen his interest in coaching increase even further.
"Just in the last month I’ve talked a lot to my agent and my wife about starting to get the itch to coach. I’m not sure what that means and at what level but I’ve started to get that itch," Donovan told Goal's Seth Vertelney. "I think what it evolves from is being able to help and being able to improve the game in a way. What all of us want to do when we get out of the game is we want to have the ability to go back and make an impact and help others.
"I didn’t have anybody at 16, 17, 18, 19 that was telling me what to do or how to react or how to act in certain situations and I wish I would have had that. Having been through these experiences when you’re on the outside usually you can see it a lot more clearly than when you’re in it, and I want to have the ability to impact people in that way and to affect change in a positive way, and I think I have a lot to give in that way. So I’m going to start considering that path a lot more seriously and see where it ends up."
Since his retirement a year ago, Donovan has repeatedly stated that he has an interest in coaching at the youth level, but it was not until recently that he discovered a desire to coach professional soccer.
"Before I thought I wouldn’t want to be a coach of grown men but now that I’ve been out of it for a while, I see it differently," Donovan said. 'I think when you’re in it, it’s easy to want to get out of it quickly and remove yourself because it was such a huge part of my life for so long that I needed time to step back and get away from it.
"But now I would consider it. It would obviously have to be the right scenario, and there’s a lot of work that would need to be done before I would be ready for that, but I think my experiences have taught me a lot, and I think I’d be able to surround myself with the right people to be successful, so we’ll see what happens."
