Landon Donovan has been linked with transfers, loans, whatever, to more clubs in the past two months than maybe anyone in Major League Soccer history. (Or it could just be that I wasn’t paying attention, when previous MLS guys were looking to spend some time outside the league.)

Paris Saint-Germain of France, Livorno of Italy, Club America of Mexico … fthose seemed semi-legit rumors with sources around the clubs cited … and then Glasgow Celtic and Liverpool were mentioned … I know I’m missing some here … And that doesn’t even include the reports of MLS soccer giving him more years and a big raise.

PSG would have meant Paris. Can’t beat that, and the league isn’t particularly physical, and teams there usually prefer to have the ball at someone’s feet. That would work well for Donovan, who is 5-foot-8 and has much more skill than brawn.

Livorno … that means Seria A … if one of the peripheral clubs of Italy’s top level. Low scores there. Fairly cynical Italian-style play. Maybe not a good fit, stylistically or with a struggling club.

Club America, now that is in Landon’s wheel house. All about the technical, very few big guys. But it’s Mexico, and even though the league there is better than MLS and apparently pays more, it’s perceived around the world as being sort of backward and inward. So it doesn’t do much for his career.

But we have a new leader in the clubhouse for Landon’s winter destination: English club Everton, which concedes it is trying to arrange a loan for the Major League Soccer MVP.

Everton? Does that make sense? I think it would. And here is why:

Everton is desperate for offense. The Toffees (don’t ask) have scored 19 goals in 15 matches, and that inability to find goals has them tied for 15th in the Premier League. That is, uncomfortably close to the relegation zone, and relegation would be a disaster for the Liverpool-based side with so much history.

Donovan might actually get a chance to play, in Everton, which to date has only one significant scoring threat — Paris-born striker Louis Saha, who has nine goals. No one else on the club has more than two goals this season.

Everton appears to play a sort of 4-5-1 formation, with the one forward up top, and Landon presumably would have a chance to move into the five-man midfield. He has thrived on the wing for the U.S. national team in its 4-4-2 formation. In midfield, Donovan can get forward without having some monster central defender bullying him. He can create, but he still can get inside the box and finish.

He also has showed an astonishing work rate, at midfield, tracking back relentlessly. Presumably, that also has caught Everton’s attention.

Also, this is a team that already has one Yank in a key role — goalkeeper Tim Howard. Howard has given up 27 goals in 15 EPL matches, which isn’t good — but six (!) of those GAs came in Everton’s opening match, the 6-1 disaster at home against Arsenal. Howard has allowed only 21 goals, then, in the other 14 Everton matches, which isn’t bad, for a club that is 4-7-4 so far.

Also … Donovan would be going to a decent club with a great history, but this isn’t Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea or Liverpool — where he likely would be buried and forgotten, and all he would gain is some nice practice time against world-class players.

At Everton, he has a chance to play. Or it certainly seems to be the case.

If this goes through, he would join the club on Jan. 2. And presumably would need a few weeks to work himself into form and give the coaching staff some feel for where he can help them.

Also, it might give Donovan a chance to demonstrate to English fans that the U.S. has another competent attacking player (aside from Clint Dempsey, who is having a decent year for Fulham). Also, the EPL is the Cadillac of club soccer, and even three months there would raise his international profile considerably.

Check out Everton’s schedule, for January, February and March. See those matches with Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham ? And that’s just January and February. If he makes some noise against clubs of that notoriety, well, that could change in a hurry his reputation as a guy who has struggled outside of MLS.

Another up side. Getting to look, first-hand, at some of the players England will put on the pitch against the United States in their World Cup match, June 12, in South Africa. A sort of one-man scouting mission for Landon, who is a very bright guy and certainly would take away some significant intelligence on the English.

I think this will work for him. He will get a chance to play, presumably, and if he’s going to go be cold and wet in Europe in January and February, he may as well do it where a guy can be seen. As opposed to Germany, which doesn’t have a fraction of the global TV presence that the EPL does.

A big question for the Galaxy, his MLS club, will be “when does he come back?” When he did his loan at Bayern Munich early this year, he was back in Los Angeles by mid-March.

That sounds about right. Though the Galaxy and MLS may want to consider leaving him at Everton till the end of the EPL season, in early May … so he can keep his body clock close to that of South Africa and go directly to the training site that the U.S. will be using in South Africa, presumably beginning no more than a week later. After the World Cup, he rejoins the Galaxy … maybe after a few weeks off … and gets back to it. Or if he has done well enough, maybe MLS really can get a serious transfer fee for him, and he goes to England full time.

This could be interesting. Very.