The 17-year-old Vancouver Whitecap player is one of the youngest players in MLS history

Vancouver Whitecaps star player Alphonso Davies challenges a Minnesota United player. Davies is coming to Langley for a kid’s soccer camp. Photo courtesy Bob Frid, Vancouver Whitecaps

Some lucky young soccer players will have an opportunity for a close-up encounter with Whitecaps soccer star Alphonso Davies later this month, when the teen sensation appears at the Whitecaps Langley summer camp for young players.

The team announced Davies will make an appearance at a yet-to-be announced time during the event for U7 to U14 boys and girls which will run from Aug. 27 to Aug. 31.

The 17-year-old Davies became the third-youngest player in Major League Soccer (MLS) history when he signed a contract in the middle of the 2016 season.

READ MORE: Teen sensation Davies leads Whitecaps to 5-2 drubbing of Orlando City

In July 2018, the Whitecaps said Davies would transfer to Bayern Munich at the end of the season, for a fixed transfer fee and additional compensation that could total as much as $22 million (U.S.) for the Whitecaps, the most ever received by a MLS club.

Whitecaps FC co-owner Jeff Mallett called it “a landmark transfer for our club, country, and league.”

Mallet said the ownership group was committed to investing 100 per cent of the funds back into the sporting side of the club.”

“As a kid, I always dreamed of a moment like this,” Davies said at the time.

“Ever since I joined the ‘Caps when I was 14, they moulded me throughout the years into the pro that I’ve become.”

Davies is from Edmonton.

He was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, to Liberian parents during the second Liberian civil war, which displaced more than 450,000 people. His family came to Canada as refugees when he was five.

Davies scored his first professional goal at the age of 15.

He became a Canadian citizen on June 6, 2017.

READ MORE: Langley teen signs with Vancouver Whitecaps

Earlier this year, Whitecaps FC announced that all Lower Mainland summer camps would feature longer three-hour sessions and they will include a skills challenge focusing on dribbling, shooting, passing, receiving and turning.

Select players from all summer camps will be invited to participate in a skills challenge finale at the Whitecaps FC National Soccer Development Centre (NSDC) at UBC.



dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com

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