This surprised me a bit. Landon Donovan going back to Everton, the English Premier League side in Liverpool, on a two-month loan spanning January and February, during the Major League Soccer offseason.

Why should this have puzzled me? For at least two reasons.

1. Landon’s career, in the minds of critics who wanted to run it for him, was often deemed incomplete because he never had a really successful stint in Europe. Until two years ago, when he did two months with Everton during this same time of year, scored a couple of goals, was popular with Goodison Park fans and was named the team’s player of the month.

I thought that he had demonstrated to everyone (and, perhaps as important, to himself) that he could compete quite well in what generally is regarded as the world’s elite soccer league. Everton would have kept him, if they could have figured out a way. He knew that; everyone knew that. It seemed, to this long-time Landon observer, that he never again needed to cross the Atlantic to prove anything to anyone.

2. Landon will be 30 in March. In soccer years, that’s 40 — especially for attacking players in the modern era, who seem to be on the back side of their careers at about age 25. When Landon did a stint with Bayern Munich in 2009, back when he was only 27, Franz Beckenbauer declared him too old to be a potential answer for Bayern’s striker needs. Lose a step, gain five pounds, get to be 30 and you’re about done. Or so it seems.

By committing to Everton, Landon is going to put another two months of heavy wear on his body, which is beginning to get a bit fragile. Especially that knee.

He played practically every week so far this year, either for the national team or for the Galaxy, and I would have thought he would need — and want — these two months off, following the return from the Galaxy’s trip to Asia.

But here is he again, heading to Everton. And we have some ideas on why that has happened, too.

1. Landon is the most accomplished player in American soccer history, and I am confident he believes that, too. But when someone like his former U.S. teammate Brad Friedel takes a shot at him, comparing him poorly to the erratic and moody (if talented) Clint Dempsey … maybe Landon feels a little jolt of indignation and finds himself ready for another grueling two-month loan during the depths of the cold and dark English winter.

(And on the subject of Landon vs. Dempsey, Friedel’s suggestion that Dempsey is somehow more virtuous by staying in England … well, money no doubt is a big incentive. Whatever salary Dempsey is making at Fulham has to be more than a Major League Soccer team would pay him, and even if Landon makes $2.3 million per season in the U.S., he no doubt could make more in Europe. Long ago, however, he chose to commit himself to playing domestically because of his almost messianic desire to make MLS more attractive.)

2. Everton may have just made him an offer too good to refuse. The Toffees (yes, ridiculous name) are languishing in the lower half of the Premier League standings and are far closer to the relegation zone (four points south) than they are to the Champions League zone (15 points north).

As usual, Everton is struggling to score goals, with only 15 in 14 league matches (and 20 in all 17 competitive matches). No one on the club has more than three goals, and that guy, the Greek Apostolos Vellios, is considered something of a bust.

Landon will not score as often in the Premier League as he does for the Galaxy, for whom he scored 16 goals in 2011, but David Moyes, the Everton manager, is a fan of Landon, having seen him up close for two months. Moyes knows that the little American will rarely miss a good chance to score. (Plus, how many affordable strikers of any proven worth can Everton aspire to pick up? Two months of Landon might be about all they can afford.)

3. And, perhaps, Landon believes it is a good idea to practice and compete at a higher level for another few months, just as a sort of reminder to his soccer brain of what that’s about, ahead of the start of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, which begins in earnest next year.

4. He has had an up-close look at what loans to an elite club did for David Beckham, his former Galaxy teammate. Becks twice went to A.C. Milan, and seemed to extend his career and broaden his popularity even more — even if he did tear an Achilles on his second stint and missed the 2010 World Cup.

Landon will be eligible to play for Everton beginning on January 4, in a match against Bolton, and his last possible match will be at Liverpool on February 25, in what they call in England the Merseyside Derby.

He will have a chance to play in several matches of global import during his stay. Everton’s schedule in the next two months includes away games at Tottenham, Aston Villa, Wigan and Liverpool … and home matches against Bolton, Blackburn, Manchester City and Chelsea.

Landon further endeared himself to Everton fans by tweeting tonight, “Once a Toffee always a Toffee.” They love that stuff, in Liverpool.

Galaxy fans, and Landon fans, must be hoping that he has another impressive two months … but they perhaps will be keenest on the veteran striker getting back to Carson safe and sound.