Soccer legend Landon Donovan opens up about depression and forgiveness
BY California Stories Staff Giselle Fernandez
PUBLISHED 5:00 AM PT Jun. 08, 2026
During an emotional conversation on “California Stories with Giselle Fernandez,” soccer legend Landon Donovan pulled back the curtain on a life that looked extraordinary from the outside but often felt painful behind the scenes.
Long celebrated as the face of American soccer, Donovan built a legacy that includes six MLS Cup championships, 57 goals for the U.S. Men’s National Team and one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history.
But in his new memoir, Landon, he reveals how an absent father, childhood hardship and a lifelong search for validation shaped both the player the world admired and the man he struggled to understand.
Looking back, he now recognizes the force that fueled so much of his journey.
“Soccer gave me that attention and it was filling this void, that attention for being good at something and someone noticing me was what I wanted from my dad,” he said.
That lifelong search for acceptance came at a cost. Donovan reveals how depression shadowed much of his life, even during the height of his career, leading to periods of profound darkness and emotional exhaustion. He writes openly about the mental health challenges that followed public setbacks, including being left off the 2014 World Cup roster and a terrifying experience in Cambodia that nearly cost him his life.
Through therapy, meditation and years of self-examination, he began untangling his identity from his accomplishments and discovered that healing required confronting the pain he had spent years outrunning.
As he explains, “I needed to find out who I was without Landon Donovan, the player.
Today, Donovan’s mission extends far beyond soccer. As an advocate for mental health, coach, father and mentor, he hopes his story will give others permission to seek help and embrace vulnerability.
Equally meaningful was the reconciliation he achieved with his father after years of estrangement, a breakthrough that brought forgiveness, understanding, and ultimately peace before his father’s passing.
For a man once defined by winning, the most important triumph may have been learning how to let go.
Reflecting on their final years together, Donovan says, “the last decade of our life together was, it was everything a little boy would want from his dad.”