Donovan hated it. He returned to the United States after only two years, slinking back on a loan deal to the San Jose team in M.L.S. He did not care how it looked; he just wanted to come home and, over the next 13 years, he only dabbled with playing abroad. He went on a few loan spells during M.L.S. off-seasons and dazzled occasionally, most notably with Everton in January 2010. But Donovan made it clear that his focus was on playing in the United States, where in recent years he settled in as a leader for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

In many ways, that decision to stay at home — which ran counter to the typical thinking in soccer culture — was exactly what the United States needed. Donovan ultimately served as a bridge from the niche era of American soccer to one in which meaningless exhibition games are on ESPN and World Cup games set ratings records. In times of transition, a foundation is critical; for the growing mass of casual soccer fans over the past decade, Donovan was that constant.

He was also himself. The most memorable stars are always the ones who are genuine, and so it was meaningful — and necessary — that Donovan was never a phony. When he was irritated by some of the accouterments that came with having David Beckham as a teammate in Los Angeles, he said so. When he felt he needed a break from soccer — even during a World Cup qualifying cycle — he took one and accepted the consequences. When he disagreed with Jurgen Klinsmann’s decision to cut him before this past World Cup, he did not hide his feelings. There was no mystery with Donovan or his motivations. His emotions were right in front of us.

They were on Thursday, too.

“For the last few years I haven’t had the same passion that I had previously in my career,” he said at a news conference in Carson, Calif. “To some extent I felt obligated to keep playing.”

That is gone now. He will get a deserved farewell tour during the final months of this M.L.S. season. Perhaps, too, even Klinsmann will offer the chance at a send-off appearance with the national team.

If that happens, Donovan will surely relish the opportunity to wear the No. 10 jersey one last time. In Brazil, midfielder Mix Diskerud wore No. 10, but that felt more like a necessary choice — FIFA rules dictate that someone had to take the shirt — than a permanent one.

Donovan scored goals for the United States, of course. And he won games, too. But more than anything, Donovan showed a country of players the way. His greatest accomplishment as the United States’ No. 10 is not any one game or goal. It is that someday, sooner rather than later, there may be an even bigger American star who will wear that number, too.