The 12 survivors from 2001

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Feb 22, 2013

[MAKING A LIST] If you were wondering about Landon Donovan's commitment to American soccer, consider this. He made his MLS debut in 2001 and has played in every season since then -- and on top of that had four offseason spells at Bayer Leverkusen (2005), Bayern Munich (2009) and Everton (2010, 2012). He is one of only 12 players who played in 2001 and are still in the league. Only four players -- Pablo Mastroeni, Chris Albright, Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman -- have longer continuous service in MLS than Donovan.

FIRST YEAR PLAYER (2001-12)
1996 Ramiro Corrales (missed three seasons at HamKam, Brann 2005-07)
1998 Pablo Mastroeni (played all 12 seasons)
1999 Chris Albright (played all 12 seasons)
2000 Danny Califf (missed four seasons at AaB, FC Midtjylland 2006-09)
2000 Bobby Convey (missed four seasons at Reading 2005-08)
2000 Nick Rimando (played all 12 seasons)
2000 Kyle Beckerman (played all 12 seasons)
2001 Landon Donovan (played all 12 seasons)
2001 Dwayne De Rosario (played all 12 seasons)
2001 Edson Buddle (missed one season at Ingolstadt 2011)
2001 Brian Mullan (played all 12 seasons)
2001 Eddie Johnson (missed five seasons at Fulham, Cardiff City, Aris, Preston North End 2007-11)