Alphonso Davies, from being born in a refugee camp to scoring Canada’s first goal in the World Cup

Who else if not him? Alfonso Daviescrestfallen a few days ago for having missed an important penalty, today he recovered his smile with Canada, the country in which he grew up since he was five years old and with which he forged a special love that today he expresses to the four winds of Qatar 2022. He scored in Canada vs. Croatia the first Canadian goal in World Cups.

This story begins in Mexico 1986, the first soccer World Cup in which Canada participated, but not in the way it would have wanted: three defeats and no goals scored was the negative balance of the ‘maple leaf’ in that edition.

After that, Canada suffered a lot to return to the most important event at the national team level. He always failed in search of his goal. In 2000, what is today its main figure was born. 22 years later, the story changed.

Alphonso Davies was born that year in a refugee camp in Ghana, where his Liberian parents came to escape their country’s civil war. It was only when he was five years old that his family received political asylum in Canada, the country where he grew up and where he began his adventure as a soccer player.

Thus, the relationship between Davies and this country became so great that today he represents it with great pride. In fact, he was one of the pillars that allowed the Canadian team to return to a World Cup after 36 years.

Although he missed the final part of CONCACAF Qualifying with injury, the Bayern Munich player was moved to tears after his teammates pulled off the feat without him.

Thus, today Davies is one of the main guides for Canada in Qatar 2022. And he knows very well that an enormous responsibility falls on him. That is why, after missing a penalty in his debut against Belgium (0-1), he fell apart. But you had to get up quickly. So it was.

The ’19’ Canadian had his revenge this Sunday against Croatia and made the most of it. With a kick in the area, Davies scored Canada’s first goal in the World Cup just 68 seconds after the match began, thus leaving his name well signed in the history of this country. It could not be otherwise. Either it was him or it was nobody.