He plays the best football of his career outside the Parma loan and makes Italy instantly better... and he's not called up when it counts.

He puts up the statistically second-best season, after his own first, in MLS history... and he doesn't make the MVP top three, let alone win.

He gets relentlessly beaten into the ground by other defenders and not only don't refs call it, he gets labelled a flopper by other MLS teams' fans.

He turns thirty, has a second child, more responsibility.

Maybe he's just in a funk because he's doing all he can here and all he's getting for it is money. That may sound crazy when you consider how much money, but I think the guy is about more than that.

Maybe he just needs an extended hot streak, and potentially a tactical shift to accommodate how teams are playing now, i.e. giving him space to run at the back line, rather than a flat two up top where, when the outlet is pressured, he often finds himself receiving the ball back to goal or already closed down by two or three defenders.