Some have wondered what Landon Donovan has been up to since the Los Angeles Galaxy won the MLS Cup last month. He left the Home Depot Center with some ambivalent comments about his future in soccer, and one interpretation was that he was through with the game.

Since then, had he been wandering the Earth? Communing with nature?

He may well have been. If he has, good for him.

But he made one very prominent appearance, in the past month, and those who saw it were deeply impressed — although what they say Landon did sounds very much in keeping with the guy I know since the last century.

It was called Soccer Night in Newtown — yes, the Connecticut city where 26 people, mostly small children, were killed by gunfire at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.

The events there defy understanding, and in the aftermath many people wanted to help in any way they could. One of them was Chris Canetti, president of the MLS’s Houston Dynamo club. He contacted the current coach at Quinnipiac University, Eric Da Costa, and from there Soccer Night in Newtown arose.

Eventually, on January 7, it became a major event and involved about 50 current and former U.S. soccer players traveling to Newtown for several hours of clinics and chats and, perhaps, a bit of welcome diversion from what had happened only a few weeks ago.

One of those who was there was Landon, and his action made a deep impression on Da Costa, who wrote about it on his blog. He was grateful to the efforts made by MLS, and the soccer community (from Mia Hamm to Alexi Lalas and Cobi Jones) and he singled out Landon for particular praise.

Writes Da Costa:

“There were so many acts of kindness by so many amazingly gracious and impressive people, but none more impressive than Landon Donovan. Landon quietly went about his business; you could see the emotion on his face. He was ‘all in’ and this meant something to him.

“As the event ended and people left the building, Landon stayed. His liaison informed him that he could go and he replied: ‘There are still a few kids here, I would like to stay.’

“And so he did. He juggled and passed the ball with three kids for about 30 minutes in a nearly empty building. When he saw a little girl crying because she mistakenly threw out the autograph card that held so many signatures she worked so hard to collect, Landon fished through the trash to find it.

“He then took the shirt off his back, signed it and handed it to a fan. He didn’t leave the building until every child was gone. As he walked out to his car, alone, there were no cameras, no media, just Landon, his sense of fulfillment and all of my deepest respect.”

Since that blog post was written, we have learned that Landon intends to return to the Galaxy. That is great news for the Galaxy and MLS and the U.S. national team … but even when he stops playing soccer, the planet will be the better for having London Donovan on it.