Clint Dempsey Adds Another Layer to Landon Donovan-Christian Pulisic Fracas

Christian Pulisic’s decision to sit out the Gold Cup has ignited the embers around the disappointing U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team. 

Citing fatigue after his club season with AC Milan, Pulisic is skipping the upcoming Gold Cup, with next summer’s World Cup in the United States just around the corner. Pulisic was staunchly criticized by former USMNT star Landon Donovan. Donovan, in turn, was ripped by Pulisic’s father Mark for taking a “sabbatical” of his own during his USMNT run. Recent comments from Clint Dempsey about Donovan’s hiatus, which were not in direct response to what Donovan said about Pulisic, have also spread this week. 

The tiff began Sunday when Donovan was working as an analyst for Fox Sports and heaped praise on Cristiano Ronaldo for gutting out Portugal’s UEFA Nations League final victory over Spain. 

“This is what it means to represent your country,” Donovan said. “This is what it means. And if you don’t want to take this as a professional soccer player, as someone who gets the opportunity to wear that jersey and take it seriously and responsibly, then don’t come in. This is what it means. [Ronaldo is] 40 years old. He’s played a long-ass season. He’s tired. He’s out there grinding. Hurt himself in the process, and I can’t help but think about some of our guys on vacation, not wanting to play in the Gold Cup. It’s pissing me off.”

On his Instagram page, which is now private, Mark Pulisic posted a screenshot in which he asked ChatGPT why Donovan took his sabbatical in 2013, and received an answer that Donovan was “both physically and mentally exhausted” and that the time away enabled him to “return to the game with a refreshed mindset.”

In the caption, Mark Pulisic told Donovan to “look in the mirror + grow a pair and call names out or are you afraid next time you want an interview you will get rejected again.” The post was “liked” by Christian. 

Also relevant to this controversy is that the USMNT has been performing poorly in recent years. The team has lost four games in a row—and seven straight against teams from Europe. On Tuesday the men’s team lost 4–0 to Switzerland.

Speaking on his podcast The Deuce this week, Dempsey, who played for both MLS and Premier League clubs, was asked about how Donovan took a 144-day sabbatical of his own in 2013—as a general reference point to Pulisic’s situation, not as a reaction to Donovan’s comments.

“The analogy I use is you have the opportunity to go plant the crops, harvest the crops, and then you’re sitting at the table it’s time to eat, and you’re showing up when it’s time to eat,” Dempsey said. “It’s kind of like, ‘Where were you when we were grinding in the sun, putting that stuff out there, the away games, your back against the wall?’ I don’t know what he was dealing with and what he was going through, but to build your teammates’ trust and all that, you’ve got to go through the wars with them, the battles with them. You’ve got to be able to look and say, ‘Hey, they’re not going to flake on you. When your back’s against the wall and you need to win, they’re going to be right there with you.’ So I can’t say what the situation was, but that’s how I looked at that.”

On Pulisic, Dempsey acknowledged that he didn’t know the “ins and outs” of the situation for sitting out the Gold Cup, but that his “mentality” was to be available to the USMNT in the club offseason even when he was exhausted from club seasons in Europe. “If I could be there, I was there,” Dempsey said. 

Following his sabbatical, Donovan was left off the 2014 World Cup team by then-coach Jürgen Klinsmann.

Along with Pulisic, Yunus Musah, and Antonee Robinson are also sitting out the Gold Cup.