LEÓN, Mexico — Landon Donovan, the most celebrated player in the history of American soccer, was driving home from the store this week in this industrial city in Central Mexico when he spotted a man on the side of the road selling pineapples.

The pineapples were two for 50 pesos — about $2.70. Donovan gave the vendor 100 pesos and told him to keep the change. As he drove away, Donovan saw the man cross himself and look to the sky.

It was a small moment, probably forgettable for most people, but it resonated for the 36-year-old Donovan. For him, it stood in sharp contrast to the venom that marked so many of his previous interactions with strangers in a country that for years reviled him as the living embodiment of its bitter soccer rivalry with the United States.

It was also the kind of benign, ordinary exchange Donovan has been reveling in since moving to Mexico, a country he visited regularly as a player over the course of two decades but, by his own admission, never really got to know.