After a summer where Landon Donovan was the stand-out star for FOX Sports’ coverage of the Copa America Centenario tournament, the former player has yet to make a decision regarding his color commentary future — although he wants to continue working in the broadcast profession.
“I’m not contracted [with FOX Sports currently],” said Donovan, in a phone interview with World Soccer Talk this week. “I’m speaking with them and speaking with others about the possibility of continuing to do some commentating. I enjoyed it. It’s a lot of work. I do enjoy it. I’m hopeful it’s something I can do more of.”
Asked whether he’d prefer working with FOX Sports for World Cup 2018 or doing Premier League co-commentaries for NBC Sports, Donovan said “I think I’m open to anything right now. Obviously, ESPN has a lot of soccer coverage as well. The beauty now is that we actually have 3 massive media corporations that carry soccer from around the world in this country. It gives you a lot of options.
“Obviously you want to be where you’re wanted. And you want to be where it’s the best chance to be successful for me. There’s a lot of things that I can choose to do with my time, I’m very fortunate in that way. So I want to make sure it’s the right situation.”
Reflecting on his impressive color commentary work for FOX Sports during Copa America, Donovan shared what it was like working alongside JP Dellacamera.
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“He’s just so good at what he does that he made it real easy for me,” said Donovan. “His ability to understand the situation I was in, which I was a rookie. He would help me and tell me when to be quiet, when to talk, he would lead me in when I hadn’t talked for a while and would ask me questions.
“It gave me a lot of respect for great play-by-play announcers because it’s more about making the analyst look good than it is calling the game sometimes. I really enjoyed working with him.”
Donovan spoke to World Soccer Talk from Bradenton, Florida where he’s been working with talented youngsters at the IMG Academy in association with Gatorade’s Beat The Heat educational program.
Please not NBC
Why not? Slap a fake English accent on him and all you posers will talk about how great he is not matter what he says.
Not really, Martino is great, Stu holden would be good, Mcbride would be great.
Hahahaha oh boy the accent thing again! Sorry not everyone wants to hear Donovan, I know he is Maradonna to MLS fans but nobody cares about him, stick to mls with his passive aggressive nonsense, the 100k watching mls will enjoy it more, him, twellman and lalas can talk about what legends they are and you can jerk off to it.
Eurosnobs are always a sensitive bunch. Enjoy shouting at your TV in your moms basement in your more than likely fake accent as well!
Stay with FOX- they need Donovan for World Cup.
I dont like fox sports coverage for anything -.- Theycopy ESPN or in other words, they are ESPNs puppet
FOX’s studio is based in Los Angeles so I see him going there since he lives in LA.
I’m sorry, but what’s the appeal of Donovan being a commentator? I don’t see it.