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Huoseh, his former minor soccer coach, family friend and adviser, had just helped broker the richest transfer deal in Canadian and Major League Soccer history — worth up to US $22M, after bonuses.

Not bad for the owner of an IT business in Edmonton.

“I never thought I’d be sitting in a room with a top-five soccer club in the world, negotiating a contract for an athlete who I coached, and especially someone like Alphonso,” said Huoseh. “It was a different thing, a different feeling I can’t explain. It was really surreal.”

The beginning

Their red-eye adventure — starting in Vancouver, with overnight stops in Edmonton, Toronto and Newark, before driving to Philadelphia — was the most recent chapter in the 12-year relationship that Huoseh has with Davies and his family.

Take a moment to appreciate where Davies have come from — Alphonso’s mom and dad, Debeah and Victoria, were in Monrovia, Liberia, when a civil war erupted. They were faced with taking up arms fighting or fleeing. They selected the latter, escaping to a Buduburam, a Ghanian refugee camp of 42,000 where food and water were scarce, and little better than a prison, though stepping outside its confines could put your life in forfeit.

It was also Alphonso’s birthplace, on Nov. 2, 2000.

The family came to Canada as refugees, first to Windsor, then on to Edmonton a year later. It was there that Davies, now five, played soccer in the Free Footie program, one designed to help underprivileged youth.

He eventually landed with Househ’s team, the Edmonton Strikers, and stayed in the program for eight years. With Debeah and Victoria doing what they’d always done — providing for their family, this time by through low-paying shift-work jobs — Househ stepped up to help them out.

Whether it was driving him around, letting Davies raid his fridge or just hang out at his house, he did what he could. Househ’s son played soccer with Davies, and both were subjected to his ‘life lectures.’

“He took me in as one of his own,” said Davies. “He helped out with anything that we needed; he was a great mentor. I think, looking back, we’ve both come a long way.

“I think everyone needs … someone like that in their life. Once you find those people, make sure you keep them around, because they’re there for a reason.”

Househ was there when the family made the difficult decision to let Davies move to Vancouver to join the Whitecaps at the age of 14. He was already a prodigy in Edmonton soccer circles, and his star was about to shine even brighter with the Whitecaps.