Waibel: Donovan deal not done, but MLS vet would be a good fit

Our report yesterday that Real Salt Lake and Landon Donovan had come to an agreement and a deal was done has been categorically denied by RSL general manager Craig Waibel, who told reporters today that details were still in progress and the deal is “far from done.”

“As I’ve said, there are so many details that go into any contract that it’s far from done,” he said. “I wish the people that wrote fiction were right, because that means he’d be with us already.”

That’s just the latest on the Donovan deal — a deal that’s been ongoing for weeks. We reported yesterday that a deal had been reached, but that report was later denied. The interest very clearly remains from the club, and both parties are interested in coming to an agreement, it seems.

Whatever the case, there are many, many layers to this move — we’ll see when something gets done — or if it ends up falling apart in the end.

A full excerpt of his comments about Donovan follow.

There’s so many details that go into a contract, there’s a balance of every athlete wants to play — of course he wants to play. We wouldn’t be in a land of Landon being signed, unsigned and all the things that have happened in the last five, six weeks if Landon didn’t want to play soccer. I don’t want to speak on his behalf, but rumors are fun, Landon does have an interest in playing soccer, and everything lies in the details.

Landon’s in a different phase of his career that fits who we are as a club. It’s a bit of evolution on the player end as well as the club end. We’ve gone into a conversation claiming we’re signing a 27-year-old Landon Donovan. All the conversations have been very realistic on his fit within the club, and he’s very realistic about the expectations involved. As I’ve said, there are so many details that go into any contract that it’s far from done — I wish the people that wrote fiction were right, because that means he’d be with us already.