Column: Meet Landon Donovan, who could be U.S. soccer’s Jason Bourne

Landon Donovan. Sounds like the name of an Irish spy, doesn’t it? Picture an Irish spy who travels the world, ostensibly to play soccer at its highest levels, but all the while, gathering state secrets.

Hey, someone get me Robert Ludlum on the phone. He’s dead? Wait a minute. Was it suspicious? Was an Irish spy involved?

I have an instinct for intrigue, just as I have an instinct for American soccer, and I have to say that Donovan’s greatest accomplishments may still lie ahead of him.

He’s kind of a different cat, this Donovan, which makes him spy material — or, more likely, the future of American soccer.

The future, you ask. Why, he just retired and ranks as the most lethal American player of all time — jaguar feet, with the radar of an F-18.

But the future?

Look at the spacing when you watch the U.S. national team post-Donovan — a spotty proposition, sometimes thrilling, more often not. It’s chunky. It’s miserable. It’s Christmas Eve at the airport.

Donovan’s greatest gift may have been an ability to open up that field. Predatory, with microburst speed, he made the U.S. team dangerous in ways it had never been — or has been since.

So in this month of political speculation, let me nominate SoCal’s favorite son to be the future U.S. national team coach. Maybe not next week. Not even next year. But relatively soon. Because U.S. soccer should be about pride — not prejudice — or run by an ethnocentric German.

U.S. soccer should turn to the player it once shunned — the home boy from San Bernardino.

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Donovan, 34, makes the rounds during an appearance at the recent Crossfit competition at StubHub Center. He does upper body exercises with a Fox 11 reporter. He discusses nutrition with a health-drink exec from Zevia. He chats with a Spanish-language interviewer who yells. Note that Donovan speaks three languages, another spy trait.

Get him aside, though, talk to him about the transition from pro athlete to TV commentator to new dad, and Donovan is articulate, in-the-moment, almost erudite.

U.S. soccer’s next statesman? You decide. He talks openly about his battles with depression, his struggles with coach Jurgen Klinsmann, his challenging transition from the soccer pitch to the real world.

“One of the best things I was told was make sure you have passions when you stop,” he explains. “I think many people get so focused on their game … that they forget about getting other passions.

“I’m a big learner. I take college courses. I want to learn to cook, to coach. I have a son at home,” he says. “I have all these things that I’m passionate about.”

This TV work, all the passions, even an ownership slice of an English Premier League team (Swansea City), is that not enough?

“No,” he says emphatically.

That’s where the coaching aspirations come in.

Next month, Donovan begins classes. Soccer requires a series of seven coaching licenses: F, E, D … all the way to Pro. Because of his long resume, the U.S. Soccer Federation will allow Donovan to skip the first four levels.

Eventually, a spot running U.S. soccer?

“I have a lot of work to do,” he says. “I might be awful at it. … You have to be honest with yourself.”

As for Klinsmann, the coach who dropped him from the U.S. national team, Donovan is understanding about the pressures that went into the decision.

“I was in a bad place. I needed to get away from soccer,” he says of the sabbatical that preceded the World Cup snub. “[Klinsmann] was doing what was best for the team.”

“I don’t know this for sure, but I’m thinking there were probably people on the team saying, ‘Where is he? I don’t like that he’s taking time off.’ A coach has to deal with that.”

Such is pro sports’ rocky relationship with personal crises, overuse and mental health.

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Almost two years after retiring, Donovan’s trajectory seems solid. TV work will keep him in the limelight till a prime coaching job opens — maybe at a top college, maybe with the MLS. Then, when Klinsmann exhausts whatever good will he has left, Donovan will be ready to step up.

List your favorite coaching traits: character, communication, people skills, passion? Donovan could check every box. He’s not a big personality, but he’s distinctive, a tad enigmatic and smart as hell.

A great arsenal for taking on global adversaries.

And how much justice is there in the fact that the tenacious forward one day may replace the fool who once cut him?

Chris.Erskine@latimes.com

Twitter: @erskinetimes

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