There is a specific kind of confidence that only comes from never being challenged. Landon Donovan found his on the Unfiltered Soccer podcast this week, sitting across from Tim Howard and deciding, with his whole chest, that Clint Dempsey was better than Eden Hazard.
The podcast was recorded at Quad Studios in New York City and the format was simple – Landon Donovan sits across from Tim Howard and stays silent until he hears a name (football player) better than Clint Dempsey.
More than 3.1 million views later, people are still staring at their screens wondering what they just watched.
Joe Cole. Silence. Theo Walcott. Silence. Nani, fine, that one is at least debatable but then came Mesut Özil, the man who averaged more assists per game than almost anyone in Premier League history. Silence.
Sadio Mané, a Champions League winner and African Footballer of the Year. Silence. Christian Eriksen. Silence. Antoine Griezmann, who finished third in the 2016 Ballon d’Or and won a World Cup. Still nothing.
And then Eden Hazard, possibly the most naturally gifted player in Chelsea’s history, and Donovan sat there like he was being asked about someone who played Sunday league. Although, he eventually spoke up for Son Heung-min, which at least confirms he was conscious throughout.
To be clear about who Clint Dempsey actually was: a very good footballer and an excellent USMNT player, who scored 57 Premier League goals for Fulham, which is a genuinely impressive return. He had moments of real quality and carried American soccer on his back for years and nobody is disputing that legacy.
But Hazard, at his peak, was unplayable. Two Premier League titles, a Europa League, a PFA Players’ Player of the Year, someone who terrorised defenders in a way Dempsey simply never did at that level. Griezmann spent the better part of a decade being one of the most complete forwards in Europe. Mané won the Champions League, the Premier League, and was the best player for stretches of 2019 and 2022.
These weren’t exactly close comparisons, and the replies under the post made that pretty clear. One fan joked, “Should have ended the video after Joe Cole,” while another wrote, “Mané, Özil, Eriksen, Hazard, Griezmann, and Son are all significantly better than Dempsey, bro.” Most of the reactions echoed the same sentiment loud and clear: “Literally every single one of these were better.”
What makes it worse is that Donovan knows better. He played in Europe, spent time at both FC Bayern Munich and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, and has been around top-level football for over two decades. This clip was not ignorance but more like a deliberate, calculated attempt to spark outrage among international fans, and in that sense, it worked perfectly.
And that is what makes the whole thing so frustrating. With the 2026 World Cup heading to North America, American football needs credible voices making thoughtful arguments, not some of its most respected figures chasing engagement through obvious bait. Every viral clip like this only makes it harder for global fans to take conversations around U.S. football seriously.
Clint Dempsey spent much of his career proving that American footballers belonged on the world stage, yet in just 26 seconds, this clip undid a lot of that work.
Check out the viral clip on the official Unfiltered Soccer’s X account –
