Germany’s top football team, Bayern Munich, which played and won the Champions League final* against Paris Saint Germain (PSG) on August 23 boasts a very talented player among its ranks -- a player with a unique past. That’s because Alphonso Davies grew up in a refugee camp in Ghana. Today, he uses his fame to come to the aid of others who, like his Liberian parents, were forced to flee their countries too.
"Today is World Refugee Day, an important moment for me. I know first hand what can happen when refugees are given the opportunity to pursue their dreams." Alphonso Davies posted this message on his Instagram account on June 20, to mark World Refugee Day. He knows because the outstanding defender** was himself born 19 years ago in the Buduburam refugee camp, situated about 40 kilometers away from the Ghanaian capital Accra.
The Buduburam camp was created in 1990 as a place for those fleeing the first civil war in Liberia. It gradually expanded as conflict broke out in Sierra Leone and continued in Liberia. Alphonso Davies' own parents left Liberia in the year 2000. On November 2, 2000 Alphonso was born. His mother Victoria told Sky Sports in an interview how difficult it was bringing up a child in a refugee camp where food was so scarce."We were safe in Ghana, but it was hard to live there. We were always worrying. People died of hunger in the camps too, not just in the war zone," said Victoria Davies.
When Alphonso was five, the family were able to leave the refugee camp and make their way to Canada. There, Alphonso was able to start school and sign up to a football club in the town of Edmonton. His parents found work and were busy bringing up their three children. Alphonso proved so talented as a footballer that he was scouted by a training center for the professional team Whitecap in Vancouver where he quickly excelled. By 2016, at the age of just 15, he was already playing for the professional team.
The following year, Alphonso was granted Canadian nationality and just a few days later, on June 13, 2017, he was called up to play for the Canadian national team in a friendly against Curaçao.
A talented youth
Word
about his talent quickly spread, right across the Atlantic Ocean,
where a lot of buzz was generated among the big European clubs about
this talented young player. On January 1, 2019, Alphonso Davies
arrived in Munich to play for Bayern. Four months later, with
his first goal for Bayern, he became the
youngest goalscorer the club had ever had at the age of 18 years, 4
months and 15 days against the team Mainz
05.***
In order to help raise funds for the appeal, he took part in a video game against the goalie from AC Milan, Asmir Begovic, another former refugee who was forced to flee Bosnia for Germany when he was very young, before also ending up moving to Canada.
As
Bayern was making its way through the final stages of the
Champions League, whose final took place in Portugal, Alphonso
Davies’ profile was raised still further, particularly in the
stunning 8 to 2 victory that Bayern won over FC Barcelona.
Although Davies himself didn’t score in that game, the Spanish
branch of UNHCR took to Twitter just ahead of the final to celebrate
the Bayern player once again and place him as a shining example of
the resilience and bravery of refugees all around the world.
*This article was translated from the French by Emma Wallis and slightly modified since it was published in English after the Champions League final had already taken place.
**Alphonso Davies is listed on the Bayern München FC website as a midfielder, he arrived as a winger but now plays Left-back, so defense.
***This match, which ended 6-0 against Mainz was played on March 17, 2019.