Words of Advice To Every Player From Landon Donovan

By Chris Hummer

Check out this quote from Landon Donovan from shortly after his second impressive performance for Everton FC of the English Premier League this weekend:

“When I was younger it was about me doing well. Me scoring, and me being the center of things – but now I get joy out of winning... When you play like we did against Manchester City and feel part of something bigger it’s so much fun."

As a youth and high school coach, I see the "me me me" attitude referenced here by the American Captain all the time - more from boys than girls, but it\'s there in both. It seems the more gifted the players are, the more selfish they become, and I feel that both get in the way their learning, as well as dramatically reducing their chances of actually reaching their – selfish by definition - goals. When you only do things for yourself, it is very hard to learn - or for your team to succeed.

The youth travel culture hurts players in this respect - at least in populace areas where there is always another strong team around the corner. Coaches of stronger teams only see the skill and natural talent from the “outside” in a selfish player, but not their ability to work within a team. They drool after these players - who dominate physically on their lower teams - and bring them to tryouts. At the trial, the players\' bad attitudes usually fly under the radar because those are the rare times when even the most selfish players sacrifice their pride to truly try and impress someone they desperately want to like them.

Then, after earning a spot on a stronger team then their last, if that player regresses to the me-first attitude, it can quickly lead to the bench on a well coached team, or to completely upsetting the team chemistry on a not as well coached team (where the player’s selfishness is less likely to be put in check, or where there’s no “team” attitude to begin with).

Don’t get me wrong, there\'s nothing wrong with a confident player, and every player that accomplishes great things is usually selfish at some level - especially goal scorers and goalkeepers. So selfishness in and of itself is not a bad thing in youth soccer, as long as it’s a selfishness to do well, and that they understand that learning to be part of team is just as much a part of "doing well" as is scoring goals!

Only TEAMs succeed at the higher levels, no matter how good their individuals are. Plenty of youth teams succeed on the backs of individuals, but that is only because the games are not technically sophisticated enough at younger ages, or against inferior competition to allow advanced tactical decision to carry the day over equally talented opponents. Players that can\'t see the team through their ego are the most frustrating for coaches and teammates - and I think the most likely to never reach the "higher level".

The sooner individual players - especially the really talented ones - realize they have a lot to learn from their teammates, and spend every minute of every practice and game WORKING FOR their teammates as much as for themselves, the more likely they\'ll be to get the chance to move to the higher level they crave, and certainly the more likely they\'ll be to succeed once they get there.

[+ read the full article that contained Donovan\'s quote]