No, Alphonso Davies is not a "problem" for Canada's World Cup team

Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s get one thing out of the way: Alphonso Davies (and his celebrity status) is far from Canada’s biggest problem at the FIFA World Cup.

An old friend of mine who works as a hockey coach likes to tell his players to “be a problem” when they’re out on the ice, sometimes with an extra expletive added for emphasis.

Being a problem, in sports, is usually pretty simple: play with a little edge to your game.

Step up and make the big play.

Show off a little, even.

Throw a little weight into your hits or your slide tackle or whatever battle you’re engaging in in whatever sport you’re playing.

Don’t play with an intent to injure, but make sure the other team knows you’re around.

Want to stand out?

Be a problem.

Oxford describes ‘problem’ in one definition as “a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.”

Davies, of course, is a problem for a lot of opponents.

He was a problem for Croatia: and if they solved him, well, it took them at least 70 seconds to sort it out.

But “problem,” like many words, has a few different definitions to it.

And two days after Canada’s gutting elimination from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, CBC’s Chris Jones posited the question: “Is Alphonso Davies’s celebrity a potential problem for Canada’s men’s World Cup team?”

Davies is Canada’s biggest star at the World Cup, by whatever metric you choose.

In a country that has produced only a handful of true superstars in soccer on the men’s or women’s side, Davies is right now in a celebrity class of his own amongst his men’s national team peers.

He’s the only one to win the UEFA Champions League, he’s the one with the highest net worth, most Instagram followers, most value on the transfer market, you name it.

He’s the household name, the talisman of the roster, and as of right now, the only player in Canadian history to ever score at the men’s edition of the FIFA World Cup.

He cracked the FIFA World XI in 2020 at age 20, being named as one of the best 11 men’s players anywhere in the world, as the third-youngest man ever to do so.

Davies, outside of the pitch, has a hell of a life story that’s already enough to fill a thousand books: born in a Ghanaian refugee camp to Liberian parents, he’s now a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador and an inspiration to, well, millions in Canada and around the world.

He’s a rapper, a Twitch streamer, and a young, proud, Black Canadian who doesn’t like the harsh Alberta winters more than anyone else.

There’s nary a person who has interacted with him that have found Davies to be unpleasant.

He’s a one-of-a-kind talent, one that Canada has never seen the likes of when it comes to their men’s national team. He’s served them so far for 36 games and counting, and should current trends and health hold up, he’ll see his name sprinkled all over the team’s record books in years to come.

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Jones, however, chose to focus his most recent article on a much different “problem”: a series of interviews he refused after arriving in Qatar with a select group of media.

“His appearance in the media tent at Canada’s training centre was his first since the World Cup began 10 days ago, and the story of his conspicuous absence has been filling the void his silence has left,” Jones wrote.

Davies did speak to some media, just not all.

He had plenty to say about the Croatia game, broadcast to any television watching it in his interview on TSN moments after the final whistle went.

What, then, exactly, is “the story of his conspicuous absence?”

Would anyone know about Davies avoiding postgame media if not for a tiny group of journalists griping about it?

Would we not be able to capture his emotions simply by watching the game itself?

Did anyone remember what Lionel Messi said after losing the World Cup final in 2014?

Did we really need a quote from Neymar after his World Cup-ending injury the same year?

Does anyone remember what Zinedine Zidane’s parting words were after the Headbutt Heard Around the World in 2006?

What, really, did anyone really need to know from Alphonso Davies in the immediate aftermath of the game?

That he was pissed off? Upset? Not ready to speak about his lifelong dream of advancing in the World Cup just ending in front of him?

“That moment is emblematic of a growing star problem with Davies,” Jones wrote about Davies brushing off the press corps.

Read that again.

Davies saying no to a few interviews is “a growing star problem”.

That moment, the moment where he decided “no thanks, we’ll talk later”, is suddenly “conspicuous” and “emblematic” of his character.

That moment suddenly overshadows everything he’s accomplished in his young career simply because a few writers didn’t have filler quotes for their articles in a story that was surely already mostly written.

That moment someone matters more than the added intrigue Davies has brought to the team, or more than his 13 goals for the national side across 36 matches against teams that have been as small as the Cayman Islands and Aruba.

I struggle to believe that Alphonso Davies, who has never refused a call-up for the #CanMNT even when they’ve played the Cayman Islands and Aruba, is a problem for the team

Vilifying a 22 year old superstar that has shown nothing but commitment to playing for Canada ain’t it

— Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic (@AlexGangueRuzic) November 29, 2022

He might be a problem for you, Chris, but he sure as hell isn’t one for the Canadian team.

It’s not Alphonso Davies’ fault his teammates can’t afford diamond earrings

The whole tone of the article is one to shake your head at, but there’s another particularly questionable passage from Jones’ work that raises more than a few eyebrows about his intentions.

“Divisions are inevitable, unfortunately, a function of Canada’s strange, stratified roster,” Jones wrote in the piece talking about the difference in Davies’ pocketbook and status in relation to his teammates. “England’s third-string goalkeeper is still a top-level professional and multi-millionaire. Davies wears diamond earrings that probably cost more than James Pantemis’s annual salary at CF Montreal.”

Divisions are inevitable in any sport. You know what else is inevitable?

Some players being able to afford nicer toys than others. Usually, it’s the most talented ones that make the most money.

It’s also not something unique to Canada. Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, an ex-teammate of Davies at Bayern Munich, makes a lot of money playing with FC Barcelona. He makes exponentially-more money than some of his teammates that play in the Polish league.

Canadian soccer might still have plenty of issues on their hands to deal with: a still-growing domestic men’s league (and no league for women), limited access to merchandise, underdeveloped training facilities from coast to coast, and not to mention a Canada Soccer federation that seems to be shooting itself in the foot every time they find themselves in the public eye.

But saying Alphonso Davies being too big a star is one of Canada’s problems?

Get your head out of the grass.