BEHIND THE BIG DEAL
Teen soccer star turned to trusted mentor
Sitting in a Philadelphia hotel room, not far above a crowded, electrified lobby awash in a sea of red jerseys and German accents, Nick Huoseh and Alphonso Davies pressed the pause button on life.
“We were packing everything up, about to take off, and I looked over to him and said, ‘Listen, man, I just want to say something to you. I really appreciate and thank you for believing in me, that I’d be here and work hard for you,” said Huoseh.
“And he goes, ‘No, no ... thank you.’ I teared up. He got a little sensitive, too. I said, ‘You’re like my own son. I’m very proud of you.’”
It was the end of a frenzied 48 hours that had left the two exhausted. They’d endured trains, planes and automobiles in a cloakand-dagger, red-eye dash that took them through five cities, a journey that culminated with the Vancouver Whitecaps winger putting the final signature on a contract with Bayern Munich, one of the world’s most successful and respected soccer clubs.
Huoseh, his former minor soccer coach, family friend and adviser, had just helped broker the richest transfer deal in Canadian and Major League Soccer history, worth up to US$22 million after bonuses.
Not bad for the owner of an IT business in Edmonton.
“I never thought I’d be sitting in a room with a top-five soccer club in the world, negotiating a contract for an athlete who I coached and especially someone like Alphonso,” said Huoseh.
“It was a different thing, a different feeling I can’t explain. It was really surreal.”
THE BEGINNING
Their red-eye adventure — starting in Vancouver with overnight stops in Edmonton, Toronto and Newark, N.J., before driving to Philadelphia — was the most recent chapter in the 12-year relationship that Huoseh has with Davies and his family.
The family came to Canada as refugees, first to Windsor, Ont., then on to Edmonton a year later. It was there that Davies played soccer as a five-year-old in the Free Footie program, one designed to help underprivileged youth.
He eventually landed with Huoseh’s team, the Edmonton Strikers, and stayed in the program for eight years. With dad Debeah and mom Victoria doing what they ’d always done — providing for their family, this time through lowpaying, shift-work jobs — Huoseh stepped up to help them out.
Whether it was driving him around, letting Davies raid his fridge or just hang out at his house, he did what he could.
“He took me in as one of his own,” said Davies.
“He helped out with anything that we needed; he was a great mentor. I think, looking back, we’ve both come a long way.
“I think everyone needs ... someone like that in their life. Once you find those people, make sure you keep them around because they ’re there for a reason.”
Huoseh was there when the family made the difficult decision to let Davies move to Vancouver to join the Whitecaps at the age of 14. He was already a prodigy in Edmonton soccer circles and his star was about to shine even brighter with the Whitecaps.
THE NEXT STEP
It didn’t take long for phone calls to start after Davies progressed from the residency team to the first squad.
Agents began inquiring about his availability and Victoria and Debeah, introduced to a world they knew nothing about, turned to Huoseh for advice and asked him to interview prospective representatives.
He had no previous experience. He owns a successful IT business — ASI Tech — and had more knowledge of American football, as a former semi-pro, than he did of futbol.
“I never thought I’d be a soccer agent; I’m in the technology business,” said the 48-year-old.
“It’s the other side of the spectrum. I started interviewing agents and I talked to Alphonso and I said, ‘Man, I don’t feel comfortable with these guys. They feel shady.’
“As a business owner, I deal with lot of different people and over time you build a knowledge of how to read people. I felt like I was dealing with a shady car salesmen all the time.
“I have been very protective because there’s a lot of guys coming around ... and they look at Alphonso like they just won the lottery or discovered gold.”
Davies and his family asked Huoseh to take his role one step further and he officially registered with Canada Soccer as his official representation two years ago. He began his search to find an associate to help him navigate this massive and cutthroat new world, settling on an independent agent in the United Kingdom, one with Premier League clients. But still, his silent partner deals only with Huoseh and not Davies.
THE DEAL
By the start of the 2018 MLS season, Huoseh had already seen some major clubs — Manchester United, Liverpool, among others — express interest in the Whitecaps teenager.
Huoseh’s U.K.-based partner had previously dealt with Bayern Munich and reached out to the Bundesliga club about four months ago.
Up to that point, they hadn’t heard of him, said Huoseh.
“He wasn’t even on their radar,” he said.
But around the same time, Davies was named to the MLS all-star team and he terrorized the Chicago Fire — including an impressed former Bayern Munich star in Bastian Schweinsteiger — and the Bavarians stepped up with a formal offer.
The teams hashed out an agreement first before Huoseh and Bayern started to negotiate Davies’ contract. Huoseh, who said he’s taking less than half of the standard agent fee, had previously passed on offers — some even more lucrative — because they weren’t the right fit for his athlete.
Bayern’s professionalism, presentation and, most importantly, plan blew everyone across the table from them away. Details, as per team policy, weren’t released, but the Davies family won’t have any financial worries anymore, neither will they have to worry about Alphonso’s life across the pond.
The young Whitecap has been promised first-team minutes with no loans or residency spells, was shown how they want him to fit into the team’s playing style and the off-field support a teenager alone in a foreign country needs, from German lessons to food and lodging.
LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS
Local media had groused about the lack of information and the wall of silence erected by the Whitecaps as it became known they were negotiating with Bayern, but there was reason for that.
After initial reports leaked, dozens of suitors and agents came out of the woodwork, blowing up Huoseh’s and Davies’ phones for weeks, even up to just hours before the deal was signed.
Huoseh and Co. listened to the offers, some legitimate, some not and even a few oily, grey area, greased-palm backroom promises, but they spurned all of the latecomers — again, policy won’t let them comment on the teams involved — and stuck to their plan, agreeing to terms with Bayern.
With all the executives, representatives, coaches, scouts and directors involved in the long negotiations, Caps coach Carl Robinson said the success of the deal really came down to one thing: Davies himself. It was his talent, ability, character and upbringing that brought everything to this point.
“I will keep reminding him ... with all that’s happened over the last 10 days — and it’s been a pretty whirlwind few weeks for him — I think the one person that deserves the credit is him,” Robinson said. “There’s been lots of talk, rumours and media speculation, but it’s all down to the boy. It really is.
“He deserves this because of who he is and what he’s done. Yes, people have had parts to play … but it’s him. He deserves all the credit in the world.”