Davies honoured for dazzling display
Youngster the second Whitecap in three weeks to be named MLS player of the week
“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit,” Moliere, the late French playwright, actor and poet once wrote.
Alphonso Davies isn’t the first teenager to win Major League Soccer’s player of the week, but each name on the list tells a tale that is useful in contemplating his future.
The teen winger was named the league’s player of the week following a one-goal and three-assist effort in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ 5-2 victory over Orlando City SC at B.C. Place Stadium on Saturday.
He is the second Whitecaps player in three weeks to
receive the player of the week honour, following Cristian Techera in Week 13.
In the 20-year history of MLS, only five players under the age of 20 have earned the honour.
Davies is the third youngest behind Freddy Adu, who was 15 years and 341 days old when he was named player of the week six weeks into the 2005 season. Santino Quaranta was 16 years and 275 days old when he was the Week 15 player of the week during his excellent 2001 rookie season.
Jozy Altidore was player of the week in Week 20 in 2007; he was 17 years and 287 days old then. Diego Fagundez was 18 years and 109 days old when he was player of the week midway through the 2013 season.
While both Adu and Quaranta are cautionary tales in how to handle young professionals, Altidore and Fagundez are examples of players who have matured into topnotch players.
Adu and Quaranta came up as young players, with incredible buzz and, especially when viewed in hindsight, a pitiful amount of off-field support. These were young teens who were being expected to operate in a men’s league as if they were a decade older.
That’s an unfair thing to ask of a young player who literally isn’t equipped to deal with those circumstances.
Adult players have a few years of life experience to draw on and to guide them as they deal with the profile playing on the professional stage.
A boy in Grade 9 or 10, as Adu and Quaranta were when they first came into the league, usually isn’t equipped for that.
On the other hand, both Altidore and Fagundez entered the league as 16-yearolds, but both were handled with kid gloves, only making a handful of appearances in their rookie seasons before being brought along carefully in their second.
In light of experiences like Adu’s and Quaranta’s, how the Whitecaps have handled their young charge makes sense. The media exposure has been limited. There’s been a conscious effort to give him time to just be a kid. And to give him plenty of guidance about his role and what he’s doing and where he’s going.
As a result, the 17-year-old Edmontonian is enjoying a breakout year in his third MLS season with two goals and seven assists (the thirdbest total in MLS) in 16 matches.
He has been the engine behind a Whitecaps offence that has produced 16 goals in the club’s last six matches, a stretch that’s seen them draw four times and win twice.
Patience, it’s a thing.