Alphonso Davies is one of the few household names in world football that began their career in Major League Soccer. The first name that comes to mind whilst discussing MLS exports, is Alphonso Davies. After just one MLS season of serious production, Bayern Munich scooped him up for a $22m fee. The rest has been history, and the converted left back has been considered among the world's elite ever since. But, we're here to talk about his few years spent at the Vancouver Whitecaps of our beloved MLS.
In 2016, Davies started just two matches for Vancouver, substituting into six others for a total of 299 minutes. The reason for this was the fact he did not sign his Homegrown Player contract until mid-season, when the Whitecaps signed a 15-year-old Phonzie on July 15th, 2016. At the time, he was the youngest player rostered in MLS and the third-youngest in history of the league to sign a contract. He joined the Whitecaps Academy in the summer of 2015, played with Whitecaps 2 in USL, and quickly made his way to the first team.
Come the 2017 MLS season, Davies carved himself out a bigger role, though didn't start many games and did not contribute to many goals. At the time, Davies was a winger, mostly just viewed as an attacking player. He dabbled a little at wing back, but was primarily focused on the attack. He started in 9 MLS matches, but appeared as a sub 17 times this time around. At the end of the season, he had one single assist to show for it. Regardless of statistics, there was little doubt that the man had serious talent. Just to think that a year removed from this season he would be at one of the biggest clubs in the world is pretty incredible.
In 2018, the magic of Alphonso Davies began. At the ripe age of 17, he found his breakout. On March 4th, in the first match of the new season, Davies assisted Kei Kamara in the 63rd minute before scoring his own seven minutes later. Otherwise, he was actually rather quiet through the first half of the season. His truly first big game came on June 9th against Orlando City. Davies recorded another assist to Kamara at 36', scored a goal at 76', then assisted both Reyna and Mezquida at 87' and 90' respectively. He ended the match with a goal and a hat trick of assists. On July 28th, Davies posted a 2 goal and 2 assist performance against Minnesota United. In the 56th minute, he danced his way into the box during an astonishing solo run to introduce himself to the rest of the league. With Minnesota shrinking the 3-0 Vancouver lead down to 3-2, Davies decided to do it himself again, dancing into the box for a game clincher. On October 28th of 2018, Alphonso Davies played his final match for the Vancouver Whitecaps, and did it in style. Once again, it was a long solo run that we had become so accustomed to seeing from him. At the season's close, he had amassed a total of 8 goals and 11 assists.
Davies then made the previously mentioned move to Bayern Munich, where he quickly became integrated at LB. Injuries to Niklas Sule and Lucas Hernandez opened up a hole in the backline for the German side. Davies said, "Luckily the coach sees something in me and plays me every week as a left-back or a winger, it doesn’t matter. Whichever one he puts me in I’m able to do the job." The young Canadian found the position change rather easy, and backed up that talk on the pitch. Nowadays, Davies still terrorizes opposing wingers and fullbacks with his pure speed and athleticism. It's too bad we only got to see Alphonso Davies ball out in MLS for a limited period of time, so he's placed at #98 here on the top 100 list.
YEAR | CLUB | MINUTES | GOALS | ASSISTS |
2018 | VAN | 2,420 | 8 | 11 |
2017 | VAN | 1,053 | 0 | 1 |
2016 | VAN | 299 | 0 | 0 |
Comments