Alphonso Davies, a Canadian soccer star who was born in Ghana, has revealed that he never received an official invitation from the Ghana Football Association to play for his birth country.
He said on the ‘Say Less’ podcast that Ghana did not show any interest in him until he was about to join Bayern Munich from Vancouver Whitecaps FC in 2019. By then, he had already obtained his Canadian citizenship and made his decision.
He also mentioned that his mother was not keen on him representing Ghana.
“Ghana didn’t reach out and my mom also said ‘no’. I wasn’t a big name. It was only when I was going to Bayern that I got a message from someone from the Ghana Federation on Instagram but it was too late because I already had my citizenship and already made a decision,” he said.
Alphonso Davies was born at a refugee camp in Buduburam, Central Region, to parents who fled the war in Liberia.
He shared his story of how he and his family moved to Canada in 2005 through a resettlement program.
“It was hard to live because the only way you survive sometimes is you have to carry guns,” his father, Debeah Davies, recalled. “We didn’t have any interest in shooting guns. So, we decided to just escape from there. They have a program called resettlement, and they said ‘OK, you have to fill in a form for Canada.’ We went through the interview and everything, and made it, and came over here.”
Alphonso Davies joined Bayern Munich in 2019 and has become one of the best left-backs in the world. He has won several trophies with the German club, including the Bundesliga, the UEFA Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.
He has also been a key player for the Canada national team, scoring 13 goals in 39 appearances. He became the youngest player to score for Canada and at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2017. He was named CONCACAF Men’s Player of the Year in 2021 and 2022. He also scored Canada’s first ever World Cup goal in 2022.
He is the first soccer player and Canadian to be an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
