Landon Donovan to Train (Trial?) at Bayern Munich

November 11th, 2008 | by: Carter Daly | View Comments

There once was a rumor floating around a few months ago, perhaps you remember it. This said rumor pertained to the all time leading goal scorer in US Men’s National Team History, one Landon Donovan, perhaps joining up with Jurgen Klinsmann at Bayern Munich to give his European career another chance.

Many scoffed at the rumor; some considered it, but since then was a great deal of silence, and most notably, Landon feeling the need publicly speak over and over and over again about his desire to transfer over to European football. Now we have some action people.

Today it was announced on both the Bayern Munich and LA Galaxy official websites that Landon Donovan will be heading over to Bayern Munich for some type of training stint with the club and head honcho Jurgen Klinsmann. Klinsmann, a pretty big admirer of Landy Cakes, was said to have been trying to buy Donovan this past summer, a move that, apparently, fell through.

What remains somewhat shrouded in secrecy is the purpose of such a 10 day training stint. The story resonating form Germany comes with some plastic quotes from both Jurgen and Landon on how the training trip is simply to stay in shape during the MLS off-season, ala David Beckham training with Arsenal last year. Yet simply connecting the dots on this long-developing story suggests it is everything but a simple training voyage to Munich. If you combine Klinsmann’s alleged prior pursuit of Donovan, with Landon’s current desire to transfer abroad, on top of the actual length of the visit (10 days), it only equates to one thing, a flat-out trial with Bayern Munich with an eye towards a signing.

Seriously, what is training for 10 days now going to do for Landon’s fitness level when he will supposedly start MLS play back up again around April?

Landon wanted his shot and now he has it. Let’s see what he can do with it.

(Brooks note: anyone who remembers The Amazing Criswell’s prediction from a while back already knows what he will do with it.)

EDIT: If you have an inordinate amount of time on your hands , here is the complete video of Landon’s first full training session with Munich, viewed here.

Besides noticing that Luca Toni and Frank Ribery feel quite a bit of affection for eachother, you will see Donovan putting in a very very impressive first day of training. He look’s good so far.