Landon Donovan did not know how to dream big until July 3, 1994.
It was a dry, 90ºF day—fitting for the peak of summer in Pasadena. There was a buzz on the streets as fans descended upon the Rose Bowl to experience the United States’ first time hosting the FIFA World Cup, a round of 16 match between Argentina and Romania.
Donovan, then an avid 12-year-old soccer player growing up in Redwoods, Calif., was one of the 90,469 fans who experienced the thrilling 3–2 Romania victory alongside one of his teammates and assistant coaches. The spectacle, enthusiasm and high stakes widened his eyes to just how big soccer could be.
“It totally changed my life,” Donovan said to of the match. “I had been a soccer player up till that point, but I had no idea about the bigger soccer world. … It gave me something to dream about, something tangible to dream about.”
Arguably the best career in men’s U.S. soccer history can be traced back to that day. Donovan went on to become the all-time leader in USMNT scoring and assists, appear in three World Cups, win four Concacaf Gold Cup and six MLS Cup titles and be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame among his bountiful accolades.
Donovan was never able to take the pitch for a World Cup on home soil, but the current USMNT players will realize that dream come 2026. The United States, Mexico, and Canada are hosting the men’s edition of the competition for the first time since that 1994 affair that let Donovan’s imagination run wild.
“It’s a once in a generation opportunity,” Donovan said. “I'm just jealous that I don't get to play it.”
But before next year’s men’s World Cup, the United States will play host to the FIFA Club World Cup, where 32 club teams—including Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami FC—will compete across 11 cities for this inaugural trophy. It’s a setup Donovan calls an “absolute dream come true” for soccer fans.
“You can literally see these people, these guys that you watch every week on TV in your backyard,” Donovan said.
The U.S. is set to be the epicenter of major soccer competition over the next 14 months—and despite not being able to play, Donovan’s fingerprints are undoubtedly all over it.
Donovan will be the first to admit that soccer fandom is still a work in progress in the United States. A sport that thrives outside the U.S., the excitement within generally reappears among casual fans every four years when the World Cup rolls around. The underdog teams and high stakes easily capture attention, but lose it nearly as quickly as players return to their home countries and local clubs.
But fandom in the U.S. has come a long way since Donovan’s youth. He admits he was only “vaguely” aware that the USMNT existed when he was young because the team’s games were not televised.
“We’re not young and naive like we were 20 years ago, but people are still learning the sport,” Donovan said.
The fan base that exists today was cultivated by players such as Donovan, Clint Dempsey and other greats who elevated the sport and brought relevancy to the USMNT. When asked about the credit given to him for building soccer fandom in the U.S., Donovan is quick to point out that it was a group effort among the players of his era.
“I played in a time where we were all ambassadors and we were all doing interviews and appearances and media to try to grow the game,” Donovan said. “There were a lot of us who did the same thing to get the game to where it is today.”
Donovan and his teammates may not have seen their efforts pay off immediately, but the seeds they planted have grown into the United States’ Club World Cup and World Cup bids. He was in the room when the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar, calling it a “really disappointing moment” when the U.S. was not named.
Now, the opportunity presented by the U.S. hosting two FIFA tournaments over the next 14 months is not lost on Donovan—and he knows the access will be critical to growing soccer fandom.
“We’re gonna have the opportunity in this country to create tens and tens of millions of new fans, deeper rooted fans in the game, and just fans that are obsessed with it going forward,” Donovan said. “There’s all sorts of levels, but the constant is that the sport is gonna grow massively.”
USWNT great Carli Lloyd echoes Donovan’s sentiment that the Club World Cup and World Cup will bring about some of the best opportunities yet for a soccer fandom boom in the U.S.
“It’s just a pivotal time in America, for soccer and for so many. It’s just going to be phenomenal,” Lloyd said. “These next two summers are going to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”
The casual fan may not see it now, but to put it in perspective, Lloyd draws a comparison to something many in the U.S. can relate to—American football.
“I don’t think we all realize the effects that the Club World Cup and World Cup [are] going to bring, not only to America but all across the globe,” Lloyd said. “You look at the NFL and the Super Bowl, the World Cup in ’26 is going to be like Super Bowls every day.”
The Club World Cup is not as widely known to fans as the World Cup and features clubs teams instead of countries. But it can be boiled down to a World Cup for the most recent winners of continental competitions from across the globe.
Come June 14, fans will be able to experience a new iteration of the FIFA Club World Cup—an appetizer to the action coming next year to American soil. This year’s competition may sport the same name as a previous yearly tournament, but the similarities end there.
The field has expanded to 32 clubs, this year including three MLS teams, with this bigger summer competition now taking place every four years. Unlike the World Cup, which will be held across three countries in 2026, this year’s tournament will take place strictly in U.S. cities, including Miami, Los Angeles and Seattle, culminating with a final on July 13 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The winning club will earn up to $125 million of the $1 billion total prize pool.
Donovan says the camaraderie experienced during the World Cup will also shine through with its club level counterpart.
“You’re gonna have people who are of Egyptian descent watching their team play Inter Miami. And you’re gonna have people of South African descent or maybe people traveling from South Africa watching Mamelodi Sundowns play against a team that they could never imagine playing against,” Donovan said. “You're gonna have South Americans, Brazilians, Argentinians, all sorts of Europeans, or people who are just fans of those teams, really excited to watch their teams, and that to me is the beauty of a World Cup, and now we get to see it with club teams in a Club World Cup.”
MLS having representation will go a long way in attracting viewers. Inter Miami FC, Seattle Sounders FC and Los Angeles FC will give local fans familiar teams to follow, and Donovan thinks the clubs will have an edge over those visiting.
“I think MLS teams have an advantage because, clearly, environment,” Donovan said. “And atmosphere and understanding what it’s like to play here in the summer. It’s not easy to play here in the summer. They don’t have the travel factor that teams have coming here initially, so there’s no adaptation period, time zones, jet lag, all that.”
Ultimately, Donovan is confident the star power will draw fans in.
“There are massive, massive international stars from the best teams, and some of the best players in the world coming here,” Donovan said. “These teams don’t travel everywhere all the time and so it’s really cool that we get to see that right here.”
When asked if Donovan thinks he played a role in the U.S. earning the bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, he is not shy to at least take some credit.
“If you have all this great infrastructure and an amazing country and great hotels and stadium and training facilities, but the sport isn’t popular, [there’s] probably less likelihood that FIFA wants to be here, right?” Donovan said. “They know that people are gonna care and that people are gonna show up to the stadiums and they’re gonna watch on DAZN and tune into this.”
The impact will beckon to that fateful summer day in 1994 for Donovan when he woke up a soccer player and went to bed with visions of playing on the greatest stages. More fans will have the opportunity to experience the same life-changing thrill, a uniting experience brought on by the beautiful game.
Donovan felt it all from the stands a an aspiring star. The U.S. will be home to those stakes and crowds for two straight summers, a feat 32 years in the making—and a dream come true.
“I don’t know how you couldn’t want that if soccer was everything, and soccer was everything to me,” Donovan said.
“How could you not want that?”
