Alphonso Davies so blurry that he goes quickly against OL - SIPA

He went far too quickly against Barça and Lyon that we must admit that we sweat a lot at the idea of ​​imagining Thilo Kehrer defending on him Sunday night. He is Alphonso Davies, revelation of the European season with Bayern, a sort of converted lateral sprinter, to whom we would have also given a sense of the game and a left foot as precise as powerful. And a strange nationality. The guy is Canadian! Ca-na-dien! Oh, we have nothing against our old cousins ​​in the cold, we just aren't really used to seeing them good at football (go ahead, quote me from memory a Canadian player. I wait…).

It could be a one-night stand, it happened with other players from other countries not very ballistic (Yorke the Trinidadian, Weah the Liberian, Litmanen the Finn). Or the sign that things are changing for North American football. Trained at Vancouver Whitecaps, Davies exploded in MLS between the ages of 16 and 18 before joining Europe and Bayern at his majority. The phenomenon is not new (Donovan, Bradley, Beasley) but it has changed a bit. From now on, we will be looking for raw talent in North America.

"Football has taken on a new dimension in the United States since the 2014 World Cup," said Clément Simonin, technical director of the Elite Athletes agency, which represents many MLS players. And this expansion goes less through a model where we bring back old glories but where the emphasis is on training, thanks to partnerships to bring in European technicians, in particular with the FFF. Today, North Americans are starting to reap the rewards of their labor and more and more talent is emerging from MLS clubs. "

Bundesliga leadership

As university training "in the United States" does not work particularly in football, where one matures earlier, MLS clubs have set up their own training centers, which more and more kids are equipped with. Huge athleticism prefers an attempt at a career in football, too violent. Add to this a "work ethic that allows them to adapt to European requirements, and careful use of data and statistics," explains Laurent Mommeja - creator of the football hopes account, who spotted Davies in 2016 during his first pro game with Vancouver - and you get some real good “leads”. Among them, Jahkeele Marhsall Rutty (16 years old, Toronto), Emmanuel Ochoa (15 years old, San José) or Joe Scally (17 years old, New York) are already closely watched.

#PremierMatchPro for Alphonso Davies with Vancouver in Major League Soccer. Only 15 years old. Born Dec 2, 2000! Pic.twitter.com/m1bpUjuqpy

- EspoirsduFootball 💖 (@EspoirsduFoot) July 17, 2016

Not all young North Americans are potential Davies, of course, because the level of MLS is still too heterogeneous to be sure of the future of a player. But enough for the whole of European football to start working properly on local “scouting” (the search for possible recruits). Today, only Germany does. Davies or Pulisic for the best known, but also Adams (Leipzig), Reyna, McKennie (Schalke), Sargent (Bremen), Llanez (Wolfsburg) come from this sector. And when we sail through the American national teams among young people, there are nearly fifteen between 16 and 20 years old who already belong to a German club. Joe Scally, for example, got involved before he turned 17 with Mönchengladbach.

In a very detailed article, France Foot explained at length the link between North American football and Germany. In a few ideas, we could explain the Bundesliga's advance on the US market as follows:

  • a bond opened by some pioneers (Donovan, Beasley, Bradley) and strengthened by the presence at the head of the American national team of Jürgen Klinsmann for years
  • a strong geopolitical link and administrative facilities
  • a Bundesliga which corresponds both to the qualities of US players and allows them to be launched young

The result is that any self-respecting Bundesliga club now has a part of its scouting cell focused on North America. Which is not at all, but then not at all the case in France. “France does not know North America, launches Laurent Mommeja. It's a hard level to grasp and a player who can perform well in a US championship, you never really know how he will win in France. "

Player agent, Wassim Gharmoul has been trying for several years to forge a link between French clubs and North America, particularly Canada. Without real success, he admits having abandoned the idea a little to try to place them elsewhere in Europe.

“It's very, very difficult to convince French clubs,” he explains. They have a great lack of knowledge of the market, which is a shame because there is even a proximity of language with Quebec. They have a methodology that works, the proximity to Africa, and prefer to leave it there. But if we look in the past we can understand the reluctance: there are no references. We need it to see talent ”.

In Ligue 1, there is now one. 20-year-old Canadian Jonathan David has just signed a huge transfer to Lille and is heralded as one of the revelations of the season. Proof that France is putting itself somehow in this market? Not really. David's journey proves rather the opposite. Trained in minor clubs in Canada, David tried his luck in Europe, when his agent got him a few tries in European clubs. It is finally La Gantoise who tries the blow, before it explodes in Belgium and catches the eye of the leaders of Losc.

To our knowledge, no French club is established in North America or has dedicated a specific scout for this region. Where Bayern has offices in New York, for example, and develops its French. “There is work being done, I went to see several MLS matches with some French leaders, nuance Clément Simonin. After that, it's a question of how the clubs work, of their willingness to make deals and believe in that market ”.

In the links between French football and North America - which works rather in the other direction, departures from Ligue 1 to MLS - everything now goes through the agents. Despite the presence, for example, of US investors at OM or Bordeaux.

“Relatively few people have a good grasp of the MLS market,” explains Simonin. It's a bit of a special market and the clubs trust our structure because Jérôme Meary, my partner, was at the head of the MLS “players department”. We have knowledge of the inside market of the MLS and the clubs. It helps to create real relationships of trust. "

An article in the Parisian also explained how the PSG, a time interested in the Davies case, had royally crashed in its way of proceeding. His sporting director at the time, Antero Henrique, the same who allegedly messed up the transfer of Jérôme Boateng for too long a nap, would have directly contacted the player rather than the club. An eliminatory faux pas in a world with different codes.

A change of mentality?

“Yes, it's very complex in North America,” confirms Wassim Gharmoul. You have to know how to develop the relationship, know the rules. For example, the release clause is prohibited. And American clubs are not going to facilitate transfers. This is all new to them, but they understood that by getting younger and younger players to play and sign, they could make money. "

Davies' move, for example, has brought in around 15 million euros in Vancouver. That of Almiron from Atlanta to Newcastle, near 24. The talents of MLS are not sold off and this is possibly another explanation for the coldness of French football. This summer, not a single French club took an interest in a North American player. Only a pre-Covid rumor reported an interest of Patrick Vieira's Nice (former New York City FC coach) for a player from Los Angeles.

For French football, these are still "risky bets to try", summarizes Simonin. But the game gets interesting when a Davies has already increased his market value fivefold in 18 months at Bayern. “This success will change mentalities, thinks Laurent Mommeja. Like Haaland with Norway. I do not know if it is laziness, but let's say that French football is not a precursor, it does not have the panache side of “we will give it a try and we will see”. Now that he has been tempted by someone else, we'll see if the eyes are so a little more open. David, if he had spotted him two years ago, they would have paid him 100,000 euros. Now it's 30 million ... "

Without evoking a new El Dorado, North America is now a "market to watch with a very exciting future", continues Simonin. Wassim Gharmoul, he believes that there will be a before and after these transfers of Davies and David on the notoriety of football us. And wants to take the opportunity to draw attention to the CPL, the Canadian professional championship created just three years ago. He sees players “largely Ligue 1 level” very accessible for French budgets. At least it deserves a look.

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