I was talking to Steve Sampson the other day about several topics, and during the chat we got onto the subject of Landon Donovan, and what his soccer future should look like.

Sampson, you probably recall, is the former U.S. national team soccer coach (1995-98), the former Costa Rican national soccer team coach (2002-04) — as well as the former Los Angeles Galaxy coach (2004-06).

Sampson said Major League Soccer and the Galaxy should allow Landon to pursue a job with a European team, and the sooner the better.

“If you’re strictly taking it through Landon’s eyes, he has a window or opportunity to make significantly more money if he went to Europe in the next year or two,” Sampson said. “After that, his marketability goes down. The league should be wise to that, and Landon wants desperately to take advantage of that opportunity.”

Kid Landon is suddenly 27, and Bayern Munich boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge this year suggested Donovan already is too old to take a chance on. So we know how at least one European soccer honcho thinks. If 27 is too old … 29 is seriously too old.

Sampson said Donovan has done right by MLS, playing in the domestic league well into his prime. Donovan’s fear is that MLS and the Galaxy will 1) continue to hold out for an unrealistically high transfer fee and 2) invoke two seasons’ worth of contract extensions to keep him with the Galaxy through 2011. And at the end of that season, Landon would be a few months shy of 30.

“MLS should come up with a price that would allow him to be marketable,” Sampson said. “An unhappy Landon in MLS doesn’t do anything for anybody. Landon has given an awful lot to MLS and the United States. Now is the time for him to maximize his opportunities in Europe.”

The timing could be tricky, because the MLS season conflicts with that of Europe. MLS runs from March to October, basically, and the Euro leagues start in August and finish in late May. So he would have to go in midseason (over there), as he did last January during a loan to Bayern Munich, or he would have to disengage from the MLS season about half way through (unlikely) or sit out a half year to start in Europe in midsummer.

Sampson suggests that perhaps the best timing for a jump across the Atlantic by Landon would be after the World Cup next summer.  “If he performs well at the World Cup, that would be the best time to go,” Sampson said.