Landon Donovan keeps thinking back to a lesson from the teacher in his high-school speech class: “Speaking is 10 percent what you actually say and 90 percent how you’re presenting it.”
The former US soccer star dabbled in TV commentary the past couple of years and he concedes there were times that “I didn’t think I was any good at it.”
With Donovan’s recent switch from the studio to the booth, the executive producer of Fox’s 2018 FIFA World Cup coverage is gushing about his future in the business.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY
The 34-year-old Donovan, who called two US knockout stage games during the Copa America Centenario, is getting his bearings with the presentation part. Not that it came easily.
“I realized quickly I’m not a naturally energetic, outgoing, outspoken kind of person,” he told reporters in a telephone interview on Monday. “I have pretty strong opinions based on my experiences and think I have good input on what’s going on and a pretty good grasp of what the players are going through, but I realized if don’t communicate it in a somewhat entertaining way, people are not going to listen.”
While other athletes-turned-analysts can lure in the audience by chatting as they would in casual conversation, Donovan has found he needs to feel as if he’s “going overboard” to come across effectively on air.
“It’s almost acting,” he said. “It’s almost like I have to fake it.”
Before he called a Mexico exhibition for Fox Sports last month, Donovan’s only experience in the booth had been a practice game that he felt did not go well.
However, he said he enjoyed working the Mexico friendly and received positive feedback.
Still, it was a big promotion to analyze the US’ Copa America quarter-final against Ecuador. It was also a bit of an awkward situation. US coach Jurgen Klinsmann cut Donovan before the 2014 World Cup, a choice the side’s all-time leading scorer had vociferously and repeatedly derided.
Donovan knew he needed to move on from that anguish, so he asked to sit down with Klinsmann in the lead-up to the match.
Their long talk was “cathartic,” Donovan said, and also illuminating about how Klinsmann views his team and why he makes certain decisions.
The conversation also provided a valuable lesson for Donovan as an analyst.
He figured he already knew plenty about the US squad to call the game.
By the time the 2-1 win over Ecuador was over, Donovan said: “What would I have done if I’d not had that meeting?”
David Neal, Fox’s executive producer for the World Cup, said Donovan has embraced the depth of research an analyst needs to prepare.
“His work ethic is reflective of the best people in business,” Neal said.
Neal mentioned Donovan among the current Fox commentators who are in the mix for the network’s top teams during the next World Cup. Since the experiment of using Gus Johnson as the lead soccer announcer ended, Fox has not determined who will fill that role in Russia in 2018.
Donovan said he was interested in sticking with his announcing career, but is also OK if it does not work out. He did some studio work for ESPN during the 2014 World Cup after he was cut from the playing roster and also had made appearances on Fox’s shows before the Copa America.
He said he and Neal agreed game commentary made for a better fit. It affords more time to explain strategy or tell a story than the snippets of the studio that still present a challenge for someone known for his introspective interviews as a player.
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