The 2026 World Cup seems like a perfect opportunity for soccer to grow in the United States, and the USMNT is among the nations with the most pressure to perform this summer.
USMNT legend Landon Donovan is one of the legends that beleives that the World Cup can be very beneficial for the country to grow in soccer.
But the former USMNT player still believes the youth system lacks culture and more to grow soccer in the United States.
Photo by Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images
Donovan was asked about the future of youth soccer in the United States, and he said, "These things need to start at the bottom [for change]...We have to educate the parents, so parents understand that their child doesn't need to win a game at 8 years old; the child needs to be developing and having fun."
He continued and said, "Our parents, unfortunately, get obsessed with winning just as much as the coaches do because they've been told that's what's going to get their child to college and professional, and it's all BS."
Landon Donovan on U.S. Soccer Now
In an interview with Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show, Donovan was asked about how U.S. soccer is now, and the former USMNT captain believes that the 2026 World Cup will reveal a lot.
Donovan talks about the best-performing World Cup performance in recent years, like the 2002 World Cup, where the USMNT reached the quarterfinals.
Donovan said, "In 2002, that's the furthest the men have ever been. And you would think that we would have gotten further. On the men's side, we have won one knockout game in our history, which was against Mexico in 02. That's pretty alarming. We are not developing players like the rest of the world...Our youth soccer in this country is a disaster."
The USMNT legend goes on about the youth system and said, "You have all these youth clubs charge you crazy fees. It's all about winning. The kids get left behind because the clubs want to make money, the coaches want to make money, they want to win, and the kids don't develop. And now we're seeing the fruits of that."
Donovan reveals his plan to help the youth system in the U.S. after saying, "This is my next passion in life. I want to help fix this. I want to give the game back to kids."
