Landon Donovan's omission from the U.S. national team's World Cup squad has created something of a divide within American soccer circles. There are those who believe leaving out Donovan is a huge mistake that will come back to haunt Jurgen Klinsmann in Brazil. Others are confident in the younger midfield selections that were made.
However, one person who seemed to find Donovan's exclusion genuinely hilarious was Klinsmann's son, Jon. As soon as the squad was announced, he took to Twitter to laugh about the omission. While the account is not verified, it is an incredibly convincing parody if it turns out not to be the younger Klinsmann.
The tweet was immediately deleted - probably because Papa Klinsmann wasn't too happy about what he wrote - but because we live in the Age of the Internet, Jon's remarks were seen by many and were retweeted furiously.
Klinsmann's son wrote this then deleted: RT @jonklinsmann HHAHAHAHAHAHAH DONAVAN HAHAHAHAA I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE UNTIL PHONE NOTIFIED ME HAHA
— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) May 22, 2014
He noticed the new attention quickly and tried to backtrack from his comments, before deleting his Twitter account entirely.
"Let's clear some things up," he tweeted. "I doubt that he thinks Davis is better than Donavan, I think (OPINION) that he wanted someone who would give it their all. alright let's relax a little bit here, not to say anything was funny, I just was not expecting that at all. My apologies for one of my earlier tweets, did not realize it until some people had pointed it out. Thank you. #OneNationOneTeam"
Only minutes later, Jon took to Twitter again to apologize for his comments.
He tweeted (again, his account was deleted not long after this): "Yes, I deleted the tweet, Yes, I realize it was VERY classless. But again, My sincerest apologies to everyone who was offended. and of course, i also apologize to Landon. It was NOT funny, to be honest i do not know why i tweeted that. Once again, i would like to apologize."
Here's the apology in screenshot form:
We couldn't agree more, Jon. "Let's relax a little bit here." There's no need for this to be a big deal.