Last month, dozens of grey-haired men in dark suits congregated in a sprawling space at Moscow’s Expocentre for a five-hour Fifa Congress marathon. The big business was selecting the hosts of the 2026 World Cup and both bids were given a 15-minute presentation opportunity to make a final pitch to voters.

The United bid, composing of the United States, Mexico and Canada, were up first. Their opening gambit came from a young man dressed in a bright red tracksuit top who strode confidently towards the microphone before detailing his personal story. He told the crowd that his parents had fled relentless violence in Liberia and that he had been born in a Ghanaian refugee camp.

“It was a hard life,” he continued. “But when I was five years old, a country called Canada welcomed us in.” His braces belied the maturity and composure he showed. He spoke for less than a minute but the impact of his words was undeniable.

It was Alphonso Davies, the Vancouver Whitecaps’ teenager who earlier this week signed with Bayern Munich for a record deal. A prodigy since making his Major League Soccer debut as a 15-year-old in July 2016, his journey is a modern fairy-tale. Victoria and Debeah Davies lived in the Liberian capital of Monrovia and had already survived one civil war when the bullets and bloodshed started up again. They had two choices: pick up a gun and try and protect themselves or escape.

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“You’re going somewhere and you have to cross over bodies to go and find food,” Victoria said years later. “So the best thing to do was to just get out.” They spent years in the Buduburam refugee camp, an hour west of Accra, and where Alphonso was born in 2000. Providing him with enough food and water was difficult and although it was better than Monrovia, it was still displacement and uncertainty and anxiety.

“Refugee life was like being put in a container and being locked up,” Victoria said. “There was no way to get out. And you can’t go far from the camp because anything can happen to you.” The family applied for resettlement in Canada and arrived to Windsor, Ontario in 2006. But, it was the following year when they settled in the Alberta city of Edmonton and began to build a new life. “When I look back – a refugee camp, no food, no clothes – and here we are today,” Victoria said. “Alphonso has everything that he needs. I’m proud of him.”

Davies’ deal with Bayern has been covered widely in the Canadian media. And in MLS circles too, it’s seen as a seismic moment. It’s big money. It’s high-profile. For a change, the spotlight is not on a faded star arriving in the league. Instead, it’s focused on a homegrown talent being signed by one of the most iconic teams in the world and promised first-team opportunities. Things are seemingly a bit different now.

Davies has certainly got the benefit of Canada’s domestic soccer structure substantially progressing in the last decade particularly. The country now boasts three MLS franchises, each with its own academy. Next spring, a domestic league is scheduled to launch with clubs operating from coast-to-coast. Young Canadian players have a clear route to the top. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, the country has a difficult history regarding the development of elite young players.

Inevitable comparisons have been made with Owen Hargreaves, who was born and raised in Calgary before he joined Bayern

Since Davies’ transfer was confirmed, inevitable comparisons have been made with Owen Hargreaves, who was born and raised in Calgary before he joined Bayern as a 16-year-old in 1997. But, that move was facilitated by a local German coach – Thomas Niendorf - who had contacts within the club and arranged for Hargreaves to go on trial. There was no domestic residency program or state-of-the-art national camp nurturing the midfielder’s talent. There wasn’t even a professional team he could join in his own country.

“We don’t have the facilities and we don’t have the coaches,” Hargreaves himself lamented during his time with Bayern. He declared for England and made his senior debut in 2001. Many Canadian soccer fans still aren’t over it.

There was a similar pattern with Bournemouth’s Asmir Begovic, with whom Davies’ bears a lot of similarities. Born in Bosnia, Begovic was four when he and his family fled the war. They first found refuge in Germany before also relocating to Edmonton in 1999. And it was there that Begovic blossomed. But, like Hargreaves before him, there was nowhere to go domestically. As a teenager, he signed for Portsmouth and though he represented Canada at the Under-20 World Cup in 2007, a senior call-up remained elusive. So, he made himself available for the country of his birth and debuted for them in late-2009.

“I just didn’t see the future being that great for Canadian soccer,” Begovic said in 2014. “I wasn’t sure if the people running it were the right people. People kept saying the right things but it never ended up happening. The words were there, the actions weren’t.” Davies has had a different experience.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Davies spoke at the Fifa Congress last month on behalf of the United bid for the 2026 World Cup. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

He joined the Whitecaps’ residency in 2015 and has already been capped at senior level by Canada. But, as much as his story has been celebrated in recent days, it’s worth wondering if his development signals a genuine shift in the Canadian soccer landscape or if he’s merely an exception, a perfect example of capturing lightning in a bottle.

A refugee growing up to become a soccer superstar is a picture-perfect, warm and fuzzy example of modern, liberal, tolerant Canada. But is it a fair reflection of a new, well-rounded grassroots soccer strategy? Davies’ formative years as an immigrant kid in Edmonton owed much to the kindness of strangers, who, dazzled by his innate talent, persevered with him enough, intent on seeing him fulfil his promise.

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Tim Adams was working as a local journalist when he set up Free Footie, a program devoted to giving marginalized children – including a young Davies – affordable, organized sport. “It’s an example of what can happen when it all goes right for one kid,” Adams says.

“But the challenge is that it needs to go right for 10,000 kids and not just in football but in life. Taking nothing away from his amazing talent and great mind and great composure but how exactly did the community line up behind Alphonso to make this happen? Who were the people who rallied around to make sure he got to where he is? And how do we multiply that by a hundred or by every Canadian city? Because I’m 100% convinced if we had a Free Footie in every single major market in Canada, we’d have an Alphonso Davies come out of every one. We’d have a full national team – men’s and women’s – of kids just like him. Because I’ve seen them.”

Adams recommended Davies to Marco Bossio, a teacher at St Nicholas Catholic School and also the head of its soccer academy. “Our program is a nonprofit organization and we try to continue the mentality of Free Footie and make sure these athletes have a place to play,” he says.

“They’re often so enthralled with soccer and they have so much fun that it maybe takes away from some of the more negative things going on in their lives. Alphonso and his family went through a lot and I can only imagine what that was like. His parents were often working around the clock so he had to look after his siblings. Between school and soccer and taking care of his family, he had a lot on his plate and a lot to deal with.”

There remain countless other young, talented immigrant children who slip through the cracks in Canada

For Davies, he had a strong enough mentality to push through and a local support network to rely on. He spent three years at St. Nick’s before Bossio began to pester the Whitecaps. “I phoned them and put a bug in their ear,” he says. “They invited him out for his residency trial and they saw what I had seen.”

But Davies is a rare breed. His is a remarkable success story but there remain countless other young, talented immigrant children who – for whatever reason - slip through the cracks in Canada. And without any support, it’s impossible for local volunteers and coaches to continue to reach out and persuade them to stick with soccer.

“A kid lived across the street from me in affordable housing,” Adams says. “He came to Edmonton as a refugee from Afghanistan and I’d take him to play pick-up soccer. It was just two-on-two. Me and a 10-year-old against full-grown men. But he was just an incredible kid. So I took him to club trials. And they stuck him on the edge of the box and said, ‘Put it in the top corner’. And he’s a little kid and couldn’t do it so he got cut. But that kid had days on Alphonso. And I don’t know what happened him. He disappeared from my hands and disappeared from the soccer community. And I’m convinced he would’ve been a star as well. But he’s gone. And I know those kids exist all around Canada. We are the country that welcomes people. ‘Come here, we’ll give you an opportunity’. Now is the time to take kids out of the shadows and put them in the spotlight and give them a chance.”

Bossio echoes that sentiment. He feels that Davies’ story is an opportunity for the country’s soccer administrators to get behind local initiatives, invest in them and ensure this isn’t just a one-off. “I think a lot of things may be going unnoticed,” he says.

“So much good is happening and so many athletes are developing at a quick rate. Alphonso isn’t the only one we brought to Vancouver for trials or who secured a spot. I just want Canada Soccer to take notice and maybe support wherever they can and acknowledge the little guys – academies that they may not even know about. If they can offer some assistance, be that funding or otherwise, I think it can go a long way.”