Born in a refugee camp in Africa, today he is one of the most promising stars in the world of football. 19-year-old Canadian Alfonso Davis has become an integral part of the Bayern Munich squad for the past seven seasons.
Davis often tells his inspiring and daunting story that brought him to where he is now. He was born in 2000 in a refugee camp in Ghana, from parents to escape the civil war in Liberia. His mother remembers that sometimes she had to walk over the bodies to go to get food.
Alfonso was five years old when his family acquired the right to immigrate to Canada, where he first grew up in Windsor, Ontario, before moving to Edmonton in the western province of Alberta.
Life will be hard on the newcomers, as Nick Hosse recalls his first coach, who is now his agent. "After the training, he was immediately returning home to change his brother and sister's diapers, when he was ten years old, because his parents were working long and could not afford nanny costs. ".
Davis explains, "You enter faster into the adult world when you have to feed children while your friends are playing video games. My father was waking up at four in the morning, while my mother was working between ten in the evening and eight in the morning. It was cruel (...) but we were happy ".
However, football has turned his life upside down thanks to his extraordinary talent. It was discovered by Vancouver's Whitecaps, which is competing in the MLS.
However, his mother was worried about the path he was walking on, and she initially did not want him to leave before she yielded to reality. But she asked him to always keep his promise to her, "I promised her to be a good boy. To keep my feet on the ground and never forget where I came from."
During the German league's interruption due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus, he participated in a fundraising campaign with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), where he considered that the latter "has always supported me, and now it is time to return the favor."
His star flashed quickly in Vancouver after he became the youngest professional player in Canada at the age of 15, and the youngest player in history with the first team at the age of 16 years, which caught the attention of Bosnian Sports Director Hassan Saleh Hamidic, who is touring the world in search of rare talents.
Davis joined the Bavarian giant in 2018 for $ 11.5 million and found himself at the age of eighteen training alongside stars who were content with watching them on TV, like the Dutch "Flying" Arjen Robben, who was the ideal for him and his father.
"It was a huge honor to be able to play alongside him suddenly," he comments.
Two years after moving to the "Allianz Arena", Davis is now valued at 45 million euros, while Saleh Hamdic believes that "we cannot imagine the team without him."
Davis was remarkably prominent when coach Hansi Flick decided to convert him last fall from a wing player to the left back, saying: "For us, it is life insurance, thanks to its speed, it is defensive and solid, and takes on a greater responsibility, something offensive."
Moving to the back line, Davis has not lost any of his dribbling skills, but he has become stronger in direct confrontations and indomitable in his speed and breakthroughs.
His fellow attacker Thomas Muller recently called him "Pip-Pip" after the name of the sparrow in the animated series "Rod Runner Flying Bird" that always escapes the wolf.
As for Davis, who welcomes the idea of ​​continuing his career in the world of cinema after retiring from football, he sees himself more in the character of the super hero, as he wants to play the role of "Black Panther" from the movie "Avengers" and says laughing "because it suits me best."
Currently, during breaks, he enjoys shooting some funny videos and sharing them on social media.
"Life is too short to waste your time when you are angry or sad, and I believe that if children hear my story anywhere in the world, they can find the motivation and courage to fulfill their dreams, too."

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