Landon Donovan Quotes

You can't obviously predict the future, but I am a fan of the United States and soccer over there continues to grow.

I think I'm being conservative when I say there are more people playing soccer in the United States than in 90% of the world's other countries, probably 95%.

I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question.

I've seen the growth of this game in this country, the stadiums that were built, the great European players that have come and the great American players who've been created. Americans want to be number one at everything. And they are at baseball, football, basketball. Soccer is growing fast, and I want to be a part of that.

My wish is that soccer in the U.S. become on the same level like the Premier League, Spanish league, or the Bundesliga.

We want the N.W.S.L. to grow. It is growing; it's continuously growing every year. We want it to be sustainable. It's separate in the sense that this is a U.S. Soccer thing, but the idea is to grow soccer in general, and we want to do that any way we can.

Baseball and American football and hockey are all ahead because they have a history. The MLS is kind of new. So hopefully, in time, and with players coming and trying to develop the game, and the U.S. team also doing well - at the last World Cup, they finished above England and created some buzz.

The more people who come from abroad who played soccer and are brought up playing it and watching it, then come over to America and bring what they know and what they play, that's how the sport will grow.

I think soccer is more respected now than it ever has been. You can see that in the numbers of young kids who are playing and the numbers of people who are coming to watch.

After the '96 Olympics, we all started believing that this is bigger than we thought, and we were willing to do the work. We knew that it was up to us, the players, to make soccer successful.

Kids are learning to play. That's why we're seeing an emergence. That's why we're seeing the Under-17s and Under-20s doing better in international football.

I think - I hope - that we're going to be able to build something here with U.S. Soccer, where it's not just going to be about one lost match or one lost cycle or one lost team. It's going to be about an entire country rallying around an entire sport in a way that lasts.

Canada hasn't really been a top footballing country in the world, but I think the next generation of players coming through, I think we can really change that.

When I went to Japan, I was with Kashima Antlers. Very good results were produced with that team as I aimed to develop Japanese football.

I remember when I was in college, my junior year NWSL was not a thing and my senior year, it started up and I had a place to play now. It's really great that it's been able to be stable for these last seven years and we can always continue to push for more growth.

I think it's important to make clear, you know, that the problem with American soccer... it isn't talent.

It just goes to show how much the women's game has improved over the years: there are some outstanding goalkeepers capable of fantastic reaction saves.

It's funny: one of the strongest parts of my game today is heading, and that only really developed when I started playing at the professional level. In the youth teams, all we did was passing.

I think soccer in America is growing exponentially, and it's just going to keep getting bigger.

I am sure my own game is improving by playing in Serie A.

Facebook revealed that Ebola was the most popular Facebook topic in the U.S. this year, with the World Cup coming in sixth. So welcome to America, where even Ebola is more popular than soccer.

I'm not silly enough to think I'm going to change the whole culture ... but I do have a belief that soccer can go to a different level.

And I'd like to say to the Senate, I hope you will say yes to a stronger American democracy in the year 2000.

It's moderate growth, with some parts of the world better than people think, and better than last year [2015].

Finally we promised to limit the birth rate. And this you really didn't believe; you smiled scornfully. Well, even in this things have gone well. The fact is that we have grown by over seventy millions in ten years, but it's also true that we have grown less than many other countries, including the countries of Europe.