Galaxy Tries a Star Swap

By Grahame L. Jones

March 25, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The Galaxy is poised to trade its leading player, Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz, to FC Dallas so that it can acquire U.S. national team standout Landon Donovan from Bayer Leverkusen of the German Bundesliga.

Official announcement of the stunning double play could come as early as today but is more likely after this weekend’s round of World Cup qualifying games.

Ruiz, who knows of the impending trade, is in Guatemala City for Saturday’s qualifying match against Trinidad and Tobago. Donovan leaves Colorado Springs, Colo., with the rest of the U.S. team today for Sunday’s qualifier against Mexico in Mexico City.

Doug Hamilton, the Galaxy’s president and general manager, would not confirm Thursday that Donovan would be coming to Los Angeles, but sources told The Times that the 23-year-old midfielder could be in a Galaxy uniform in time for the team’s April 2 Major League Soccer season opener at Columbus.

“As a general policy, we don’t comment on speculation or rumors,” Hamilton said of a Kicker magazine article published in Germany on Thursday that reported Donovan was returning to MLS.

“I have not seen the Kicker article, but I have been made aware of it,” Hamilton continued. “I don’t think it quotes anybody from Germany or the player or the player’s representatives, so for me those are all just rumors.”

Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson was not available to comment Thursday, a team spokesman said.

Donovan, the U.S. player of the year for the last three years and possibly the sport’s most accomplished American, spent the last four seasons with the San Jose Earthquakes, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, and won MLS championships with San Jose in 2001 and 2003.

He announced in November that he would return to Europe for a second stint with Bayer Leverkusen, which holds his contract.

Since rejoining the Bundesliga club in January, however, Donovan has played only sporadically, most often off the bench, and experienced what Kicker described as “an athletic Waterloo” with what the magazine termed “his totally ineffective performance in the Champions League against Liverpool.”

The article said the 3-1 home loss in that March 9 game had devastated Donovan. “Within two weeks, he lost all inspiration,” Kicker said. “He will continue his career in the USA.”

If so, it will be in Los Angeles.

“If you’re asking me if a player of his quality would be available in our league, yeah, we’d probably try to make a run at him,” Hamilton acknowledged. “Pending cap issues and other things, sure.”

Ruiz was the Galaxy’s leading goal scorer in each of his three seasons with the club, scoring 61 goals in 83 regular-season and playoff matches. It was his goal that gave the Galaxy a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution in MLS Cup 2002, earning Los Angeles its only MLS title to date.

Ruiz was the league’s most valuable player in 2002, and the Guatemalan striker, nicknamed “El Pescadito” or “the Little Fish,” was also MLS’ top goal scorer in 2002, and its co-leading scorer in 2003.

At FC Dallas, Ruiz will be paired with Eddie Johnson, the league’s co-leading scorer in 2004, giving the Galaxy’s Western Conference rival one of the most potent offenses in MLS in 2005.

Dallas added another former Galaxy player Thursday when it signed defender Greg Vanney, who had been playing for Bastia in the French league for the last three years.

To acquire Donovan and still stay under the salary cap, the Galaxy was forced to part with Ruiz, as well as several other players Los Angeles traded away this year.

It was a price the Galaxy was willing to pay.

Tim Leiweke, the influential president of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which counts five MLS teams, including the Galaxy, among its holdings, said in an interview with The Times in November that he believed Donovan’s place was in MLS.

“Landon Donovan’s the best player in MLS,” Leiweke said. “Landon Donovan’s the best player in the United States Soccer Federation’s entire system. And Landon Donovan, God bless him, loves Major League Soccer.

“Landon has an issue he has to resolve in Germany one way or another. He has to resolve it once and for all. We knew this was coming for a while, and the league’s going to have to work this out.”

The message was clear: AEG wanted MLS to do whatever was necessary to help Donovan sever ties with Germany and return America’s star to America’s league.

As it turned out, Donovan opted to honor the contract he had with Bayer Leverkusen, which signed him as a highly promising 16-year-old out of Redlands East Valley High in February 1999.

He spent two predominantly unhappy years in Leverkusen, a grim industrial town without a hint of the California lifestyle to which Donovan was accustomed, and was unable to break into the first team.

After four years in MLS, however, he believed that he was ready to try again and was morally obligated to do so.

“This is not me having to go back to Germany,” he said on Nov. 24. “This is me wanting to go back to Germany.

“They’ve assured me it’s not a prison I’m going back to. If I don’t like it, they will do whatever they need to do to make me happy.”

And then there was this:

“I want to assure everyone [that] MLS is absolutely in my future at some point,” he said. “I wish I could tell you when. I don’t know. I’m going to Leverkusen with an open mind, but ... I can promise you I’ll be back in MLS someday.”

April 2 might be that day.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Donovan File

* Name: Landon Timothy Donovan

* Born: March 4, 1982, in Ontario, Calif.

* Current club: Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)

* Previous MLS club: San Jose

* MLS record: Four years, 101 games, 42 goals, two MLS Cup championships

* National team caps: 59

* National team goals: 19

* U.S. player of the year honors: 2002, ‘03, ’04

* International honors: MVP of 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Championships