Davies back with Whitecaps, embracing ‘video-game’ life
VANCOUVER — For Alphonso Davies, life is becoming a little bit more like a video game.
The 17-year-old has always loved the FIFA soccer games and, as a kid, he liked to play as some of the Bayern Munich players he enjoyed watching on TV.
In January, Davies will be teammates with some of those athletes.
The German soccer giant agreed to a record-breaking US$22-million transfer deal for the Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder on Wednesday. He’ll play for the team through 2023.
“Those are the guys that, as a kid, I was looking up to, watching them on TV, playing them in FIFA. Getting to meet them and play with them is just exciting,” Davies said.
And the prospect of being a character in a FIFA game one day soon?
“I don’t know what to say. It just puts a big smile on my face,” the teen said, grinning wide and showing off his braces.
Davies has been doing a lot of smiling since he signed the contract with Bayern. For his mother, though, the initial reaction was shock.
“I talked to her (on Wednesday) and she almost burst out in tears,” Davies said. “She couldn’t believe it.”
Davies was born in a refugee camp in Ghana after his parents fled the Liberian civil war. His family immigrated to Canada when he was five, eventually settling in Edmonton, where his parents and his five siblings still live.
“My family went through a lot coming to Canada. I’m just really, really happy that I can do this for them and that they’re proud of me,” he said.
The rising star knows that achieving his dream of playing for a premier European club won’t be easy for his mom.
“Moving overseas, no mother wants to see their kid go so far away from them,” he said. “But coming (to Vancouver) really opened her eyes that I can take care of myself and I’m ready to take that next step.”
Davies has been on an “unbelievable journey,” said Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson.
He joined the team’s residency program in 2015 and since then has steadily worked his way up to the starting lineup.
A lighting-quick player with astonishing ball control, Davies has three goals and eight assists for Vancouver this season and is set to play in the MLS all-star game in Atlanta next week.
“The progression of Fonz, since he’s been with the first team, has been phenomenal,” Robinson said.
“Dreams do happen. Fairy-tale stories do happen.”
Before Davies takes the next step and joins the German Bundesliga, he’ll play out the MLS season with the Whitecaps.
After weeks of negotiations about his future — which Davies described as being “kind of boring at times” — and missing three games with the Whitecaps, the young athlete is excited to get back out on the field.
He wants to score his first-ever hat trick before leaving Vancouver.
There’s still a lot of work do, Robinson said.
“I’m so excited for the boy. I really am. But listen, I won’t let him off the hook for the next three months, let me tell you that,” Robinson said.
Amidst all the excitement, there are some nerves, Davies admitted.
“But life comes with challenges and I’m ready to take on this one,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Whitecaps advanced to the final of the Canadian Championship with Wednesday’s 2-0 win over the Montreal Impact for a 2-1 aggregate victory in the two-leg semifinal series.