LONDON — American soccer’s biggest name has arrived in England, hoping to live up to the reputation he made for himself on his first visit. Landon Donovan is fresh from Los Angeles, so it was understandable when he noted that sequels sometimes do not live up to the original.
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But Dempsey may have to move on to get a chance to play in the Champions League.
Not that he will not try to do even better this time around. But as Donovan begins his second stint with Everton, he will inevitably be measured against another American — Clint Dempsey — who has already proved himself in England’s Premier League.
Dempsey, a 28-year-old Texan, has been playing in England for Fulham since the start of 2007. Last month, he broke the record for goals by an American in the Premier League, when he scored his 37th in a 1-0 win against Liverpool.
Dempsey overtook Brian McBride, a former Fulham teammate who made 151 appearances for the club from 2004 to 2008 and became enough of a legend that the club named a bar in the stadium after him.
Since his record-breaking goal, Dempsey has scored twice more, including the tying goal against powerhouse Chelsea in a 1-1 tie on Dec. 26.
In the midst of this success, here comes Donovan, who had a strong three-month run with Everton in 2010 that has now prompted his return. But whereas the 29-year-old Donovan has spent much of his career in the United States, starring for first the San Jose Earthquakes and then the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer, Dempsey has essentially been all-England, joining Fulham after playing only three seasons for the New England Revolution. And he gives no indication of wanting to go home despite the demands of playing in the Premier League, especially for a smaller club like Fulham.
“There’s more pressure on you game in and game out,” Dempsey recently told Fox Soccer about playing in what is widely considered the best league in the world. “It’s such a roller coaster. If you go on a bad run of form, after five or six games, you can find your manager fired. That’s something I didn’t see in M.L.S.”
Dempsey, a midfielder, has played under five managers in the five years he has spent in England, and each one has asked something different of him. The man who brought him to England, Chris Coleman, saw him as a right wing. Coleman’s successor, Lawrie Sanchez, wanted him as a striker. Roy Hodgson played him on the left, and Mark Hughes in all of the above. Dempsey’s current manager, Martin Jol, uses him in more of a roving role.
Dempsey’s diversity comes from playing in the dust outside his childhood home, a trailer in his grandparents’ backyard in Nacogdoches, Tex. The state may be a football hotbed, but Dempsey had Hispanic friends and grew up watching soccer.
He plays with a swagger well suited to the Premier League, and with no shortage of toughness. While still learning his craft in M.L.S., he played two games with a broken jaw.
But the casualty list for close encounters with Dempsey is also fairly extensive. Kansas City defender Jimmy Conrad’s jaw, Chelsea defender John Terry’s cheekbone and, just last month, the right side of Manchester United defender Phil Jones’s face have all come off worse for colliding with one of Dempsey’s elbows.
But Dempsey also knows how to find the cracks in soccer’s space-time continuum: he seems to be everywhere in the same moment. He scored the only goal for the United States in the 2006 World Cup, and got the tying goal against England in 2010 in South Africa.
And consider his performance against Arsenal on Monday, a 2-1 victory for Fulham brought about by over-my-dead-body determination.
One minute, Dempsey was defending his penalty area. Seconds later, he was dictating possession, and then he was launching himself at full stretch toward the Arsenal goal.
One of Dempsey’s greatest strengths is his ability to retain the ball, maintaining pressure on opponents. Another is his nose for the goal. Already Fulham’s top scorer this season, with six goals, he seemed about to convert a shot against Arsenal when he drifted in behind defender Per Mertesacker in the 66th minute, rising quicker than Mertesacker but heading the ball just wide of the far post from three yards.
Although his trademark finish is from close range — even as striker Bobby Zamora scored Fulham’s winner against Arsenal, Dempsey was sprinting toward the goal line in case of a loose ball — he is capable of producing moments of audacity straight from one of those trailer-park games.
One came late in a Europa Cup game against Juventus in 2010, after Dempsey got the ball with his back toward the goal. Swiveling at the top of the penalty area, he chipped an exquisite lob over goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti. Fulham advanced to the championship game, where Dempsey became the first American to appear in a European final.
With his contract set to expire next year, attention will naturally turn to his future. Dempsey has been linked with more elite English teams like Arsenal and Liverpool, and the lure of playing for a much bigger club — and the potential to appear in the Champions League — could prove irresistible.
“You never know your road in life, but, hopefully, Champions League is in the cards for me,” he told Fox Soccer.
Meanwhile, Donovan could begin his sequel Wednesday against Bolton. His team is scheduled to meet Dempsey’s on April 28, but by then, Donovan should be back home, helping the Galaxy try to defend their M.L.S. championship.
Until Donovan departs, he and Dempsey will lead parallel lives, each playing for clubs trying to make the most of their talent. Which would seem to describe Dempsey’s determined mind-set, one that has already carried him far overseas.
“You grab some sand and put it in your hand,” he once said. “That’s all the people who want to play the game. Then, you drop the sand and that’s all the people who make it to the next level. Then you pat your hand and there are only a few left. And they’re the ones who make it in the world. That’s how I view it. I’m just someone who wants to make it in the world.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 4, 2012
An earlier version of this article omitted the attribution on two of Dempsey’s quotations. He made them to Fox Soccer.
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