Landon Donovan maybe returning to MLS in 2017 couldn't be about the 2018 World Cup, could it?

It was supposed to be a temporary thing, Landon Donovan re-emerging from his second retirement – or his first retirement, if you don’t count his open-ended 2013 sabbatical – to help the Los Angeles Galaxy down the stretch of last season while the club suffered through an injury crisis.

The 34-year-old superstar, who owns just about every meaningful record in Major League Soccer and United States men’s national team history, had been jonesing to get back on the field after more than a year and a half away. He’d gotten married a second time and become a father and wanted to share the experience with his new family.

After a halting start, he played well enough to emerge as a contributor in the LA Galaxy’s ultimately doomed pursuit of a sixth MLS Cup. But when the club didn’t announce an extension to his short-term deal after the season, it was widely assumed that Donovan would re-retire – or re-re-retire. The Galaxy even said so. And, surely, Donovan wouldn’t suit up for anybody but the Galaxy, his club for more than a decade in his beloved Southern California.

His Brett Favre/Roger Clemens impersonation, however, is getting better by the season. On Thursday, word got out that Donovan had received a multi-year offer from Real Salt Lake in the Designated Player salary-range, which is to say, more than $457,500 per year. Then another team apparently got in on the bidding.

If Donovan does indeed return, and his receiving an offer or two hardly guarantees that he’ll play on, he’ll be 35 when the season starts. Yet he seems to have plenty left to give. On the field as well as off it. Even in retirement Donovan remained the biggest name in American men’s soccer. And easily its most visible in various TV commercials.

But let’s spin this thing forward. Why a two-year contract? Whose idea was that? Donovan’s or RSL’s? Surely it wouldn’t be offered if he wasn’t amenable to it. And that raises an intriguing question. After he was inexplicably shunted from the 2014 World Cup roster in one of Jurgen Klinsmann’s scattershot moves, could it be that Donovan has half an eye on the 2018 edition in Russia? Because let’s not forget that Bruce Arena, Donovan’s father in football, is now the national team coach again.

The question of a Landon Donovan recall to the national team has already been put to Arena. And he certainly didn’t rule it out.

Donovan’s return is still just theoretical until he signs a contract somewhere. But whatever his reasoning, and whatever his objectives, we’re all for it.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.