Landon Donovan goes rec league in sly new bank commercial

Landon Donovan has ridden off into the sunset after his storied career concluded with the LA Galaxy’s 2014 MLS Cup championship victory over the New England Revolution in December, but he’s still hanging around to make soccer fans smile.

The iconic U.S. midfielder has poked fun at himself — and a few classic Sunday-league soccer stereotypes — in a new TV commercial hawking Wells Fargo’s banking services.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePkAKg7pS5c

Donovan is depicted as the latest arrival to a scruffy-looking recreational league team, where he, remarkably, goes unrecognized — and even has to endure the insult of a typo in the nameplate on the back of his new jersey.

+READ: MLS names MVP award after Landon Donovan

The 30-second spot slips in a few subtle gags that might provide seasoned LD watchers with some entertainment, and offers a hint at what kind of media presence we might see from Donovan’s post-retirement mode.

That said, he did not meet up with his Galaxy teammates in Washington to receive congratulations on last year’s championship from President Barack Obama on Monday. (It’s standard operating procedure that entire teams are gathered for such an event, even those players who’ve since left the trophy-winning club.)

Sources in the know tell SoccerWire that Donovan has already returned to the wandering ways we saw during his 2013 sabbatical, when he dropped off the grid to visit Cambodia before rejoining his LA squad a few weeks into the season. Though his specific itinerary is under wraps, the Southern California native is definitely getting some new stamps in his passport as he sets out in pursuit of a life outside the white lines.

So while many are certain that Donovan, just as this commercial hints, will eventually get the itch to play the game again and make a Michael Jordan-esque comeback to MLS … don’t hold your breath.