On Monday, Landon Donovan and agent Richard Motzkin will meet with officials at Donovan's German club, Bayer Leverkusen, to discuss Donovan's future. Motzkin said they plan to discuss "everything," from a new deal with Bayer to a loan to another German club to a move to another European country to, yes, a move to MLS.

Motzkin admitted there are issues that need to be fleshed out, including prospects for playing time in Leverkusen, Landon's "being 18 and 6,000 miles away from home" and how the next few months will go a long way in determining whether Landon can secure a spot on Bruce Arena's national team as it attempts to qualify for Japan/South Korea 2002. "All we want is to do what's in the best interest of Landon's development as a player and a person," Motzkin said. "We're not sure what that is right now."

Let me go on record right now as saying the rest of this piece will be speculation. I expect I'll get a chance to speak with Donovan this weekend in Florida, but for now, I'm just going to give you my gut feeling on what's going to come down on Monday.

So we're clear, right? This is OPINION, not fact. Here goes ...

Donovan will play in MLS this season.

I cannot tell you what team he will play for -- though it would figure that San Jose would be the team most deserving of his services -- but Donovan will play in MLS this year for the same reason that Greg Vanney will play in MLS and not Spain.

That reason is named Bruce Arena.

Certainly after his performance in the U.S.-China game last week, Donovan can smell a spot on Arena's roster. He will lose that scent if he goes back to Germany and starts playing with Leverkusen's reserves in the Fourth Division again. Arena has been consistent since he took over as U.S. coach in saying that the spots on his team will go to the players who are in form and, more importantly, regularly playing first-team soccer.

Of course, there are complications. To begin, Donovan is only two-and-a-half years into a four-year contract with Leverkusen, making pretty good money. But that won't create a dead end. Yes, Donovan is the Golden Ball award winner from the U-17 World Cup, and Bayer Leverkusen certainly consider him a top prospect in their system.

But Leverkusen is a massive club, a club that will continue to sign every young, talented player they can find, whether Donovan stays on or not. The last thing a club of that stature wants is a player who's heart and mind are on another continent.

As the holder of the contract, and the club that came up with the money to sign Donovan nearly two years ago, Leverkusen will try to make a profit on the sale -- but don't expect them to be greedy. If MLS has one thing, it's a stable of players. A dozen teams' worth of players. And the people at Bayer know that an amicable negotiation here could help them down the road if a desirable MLS player surfaces in the next few years.

"At this point, we've had no discussions with MLS," Motzkin said. "Will it come to that? I can't say for sure. We're just going to talk about what's best for Landon."

Going South

Another big soccer weekend in the U.S., with the MLS Combine and Umbro Select Games, the U.S.-Colombia friendly and, finally, on Monday, the MLS SuperDraft. The Boot Room will be down in Fort Lauderdale to keep up with all the developments.

Here are a few things to keep an eye on.

There will be trades. Oh, I've complained long and loud about the boring MLS off-season. Well, all that will change during the hours leading up to Monday's draft. It seems to take a convention-type setting (no, I'm not suggesting booze has anything to do with it) to get the GMs and coaches to make some deals.

Attention: Cult members

This is not an open invitation for everyone to e-mail me and tell me how they'll subscribe to ESPN The Magazine as soon as we start covering soccer in every issue, but it is to tell you that in the next issue of The Mag, in the Pulse section, I'll be telling the mainstream sports fans about the little thing we (I said "we") American soccer fans have going on the net. It should hit the newsstands late next week (and will be posted on espnmag.com on Wednesday, February 7). Along those same lines, you'll notice some changes in the Boot Room, as we relocate to The Magazine's funky new web space -- the links will still be found on ESPN's soccer page as well.

A nice gesture

Before I forget ... remember at the end of the Boot Room last week, agent Dan Segal wrote a piece on why free agency would be good for MLS? Well, if you recall, at the end of Segal's letter, I told the MLS folks that space was available for a rebuttal. Well, I didn't get one, but did get a very nice note from the league, to at least let me know they're reading the column.

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for offering the "Boot Room" as a forum for commenting on Mr. Segal's letter. While we appreciate the constructive sentiment behind the letter, we do not believe the Internet is the place to try and resolve the differences between MLS and the group currently representing its players, the NFL Players Association. Moreover, given the fact that the NFLPA has announced its intent to appeal the recent decision of the jury, we prefer not to comment at this time.

Jeff, thanks again for providing us the opportunity to respond.

Sincerely,

Ivan Gazidis
Deputy Commissioner

 

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail jeff.bradley@espnmag.com.