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Landon Donovan sendoff: Where does it rank among others in recent memory?

By on December 4, 2014

When you know you are watching a living legend in their last ever professional football match, the occasion can be bittersweet. Eyes are inevitably glued to the pitch to absorb every last turn, pass, and shot the legend makes, knowing it will be his last. Then, there are even more memorable occasions, if the last match is a major game such as a cup final. It has happened several times, and more often than not it is incredible how this one player manages to outshine the match. In recent memory, four people, three players and one manager, have specifically done exactly this.

Zinedine Zidane
It was the ultimate sendoff that became the ultimate sending-off. Zinedine Zidane had practically carried France through the World Cup, all the way to the final. Having previously announced his immediate retirement from football after France’s campaign, fans knew his last match would be his second World Cup final. He had already won his first, but sadly, his second ended tragically.

The match had gone into extra-time with the score 1-1. It was the hundred and tenth minute, and suddenly there was a commotion down the nearside of the pitch. Before replays were aired, Zidane was sent off. Off. His final game, the World Cup final, ended with him being sent off halfway through extra-time. What a way to go off, tragic as France lost on penalties, while the eventual replay showed his red card was more than fully deserved due to his head-butt of Marco Materazzi. With that, Zinedine Zidane, one of the best players of an era, ended his career with a red card deep into extra-time of the World Cup final.

Didier Drogba
Again, Drogba technically didn’t retire, and has even returned to Chelsea for a second sting, yet at the time of The Blues’ meeting with Bayern Munich in the 2011/2012 Champions League final, none of this was known, except for the fact that he would be leaving Chelsea after an incredible eight years at the club. It was all on the cards whether it might be the last match of his career, though of course he did continue and has now found his way back to Chelsea. However, let’s divulge. It was the eighty-eighth minute, and Bayern had been dominating. The Bavarians were up 1-0, though they had missed multiple sitters and the goal that seemed to be their winner came in the eighty-third minute. Cue, Didier Drogba. The Ivorian rose up, and gloriously equalized with a near post header. Yet that wasn’t all. The match went into extra-time, and in the ninety-fifth minute Bayern were awarded a penalty. Somehow, whether luck was on Chelsea’s side or it was pure grit, Petr Cech saved it and helped take the Champions League final into a penalty shootout.

Cue Drogba again. Chelsea had been down one goal in the shootout, but as Bayern missed their final two spot-kicks, Drogba stepped up to the plate with Chelsea’s fifth penalty, knowing a goal would be enough to win one of the only titles he came so close to before but failed to win previously in his Chelsea career. Of course, he scored with a beautiful side-footed effort, sending Manuel Neuer the wrong way and hitting it low, across his body into the right-hand corner of the net.

Mia Hamm
The headline player of a generation of USWNT players who successfully promoted the Women’s game at a national scale, Mia Hamm, played in her last ever meaningful match in the 2004 Olympics final. It was her third Olympic final, however, the previous tournament had ended disappointingly with a silver. She had won basically every other international trophy to win in her career, but with a win over Brazil in extra-time, she put the icing on the cake with gold. Moreover, it was also the final match in the careers of her teammates and USWMNT stars Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett, though the latter of whom didn’t play due to injury.

Sir Alex Ferguson
Technically a manager not a player, but undoubtedly one of the greatest of all time, and thus still qualifies. After twenty-six years of winning everything and everything multiple times with Manchester United, his time came to a close at the end of the 2012/2013 season, and his final match was away against West Bromwich Albion. It wasn’t a great match at face value, that is until West Brom came back from 3-0 down to within one goal of United, and then from 5-2 down, with three goals in the final ten minutes, to an enthralling 5-5 finish. The match was a perfect representation of all his late comebacks, and although he was on the other end of the scoreline it was still a brilliant cap to a title winning league season (the joint highest scoreline in Premier League history), as well as his career.

Landon Donovan…
THE man, Landon Donovan, is next up the plate to take the challenge. The face of American soccer for nearly all of his fifteen year professional career will be capping it all off this weekend, in none other than the MLS Cup final. This is no testimonial, but will undoubtedly be overshadowed by Donovan. Whether he goes out with the cup or not, it will certainly be another memorable event – make sure to stay here for all of our match coverage, live from the event itself in Los Angeles!

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.