22 Nov 2013
Landon Donovan recently took a year-long sabbatical in order to get over his burnout issue. The striker had been playing continuously for the last few years, which had been affecting his quality.
He has only recently returned to first team action, but US national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann has said that the LA Galaxy star should consider playing at a European club during the MLS off-season in order to retain his fitness levels. This will be the World Cup year and the US are expected to be part of it. There is a lot of competition for places in the US national team.
Due to the fact that the MLS season is not very hectic, Klinsmann has said that players like Donovan and Clint Dempsey can easily look forward to playing the next three months on loan at an European club. Donovan is no stranger to such loan deals because he has been at Everton on two spells and they both have been very successful. Now that Everton do not have David Moyes, it remains to be seen if Donovan will be open to a return to Goodison Park. Klinsmann has confirmed that players who are not playing on loan at clubs in Europe will need to take part in a camp.
"If you get a chance to go on loan to Europe, do it. Compete there with good players overseas. It is very crucial for us that the players understand that everything they do now, today, has an influence on Brazil 2014. They can't take it easy. We wish that all of them can make it to the final and win the MLS Cup but it's only going to happen to a few of them. So everybody who is maybe out earlier needs to have a plan in place to bridge that off-season period," Klinsmann said.