Known as one of the best full-backs in soccer today, Canadian superstar Alphonso Davies seems like he would be a welcome addition to just about any club.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case.
While he’s now a prominent member of the Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich, when Davies was still a teenager, he was beginning to outgrow his role in the MLS, playing for the Vancouver Whitecaps. And then, the European clubs came calling.
Last week, as a guest on the Say Less podcast, Davies recounted the story of FC Barcelona passing on him as a youngster. And from what he understands, it wasn’t a result of his performance on the field.
“Barca actually reached out, but the president said they didn’t want me,” Davies explained. “They said that they didn’t want me because I was Canadian.”
“That crushed my feelings a little bit,” he explained.
The hard feelings didn’t seem to last too long, though. In July 2018, when Davies was still 17, Vancouver announced that it had agreed to a multimillion-dollar transfer of Davies to Munich, with Davies seeing out the 2018 MLS season with Vancouver before making his debut with the German club in January 2019. The base fee for the transfer was a record-high for the MLS at the time, coming in at US$13.5 million, with performance-related bonuses totalling $22 million.
In his first year in Germany, Davies was named Bundesliga Rookie of the Season. Meanwhile, Bayern won the Bundesliga, the UEFA Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.
He made his World Cup debut in 2022 with Canada, scoring the nation’s first-ever goal in the international tournament.
The 22-year-old is currently playing in the CONCACAF Nations League tournament. Canada is set to take on Panama at Allegiant Stadium in the semifinal match in Las Vegas on June 15.