Davies leads surge of Canadian talent playing abroad

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/02/2021 (2008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alphonso Davies, the cliché goes, is enjoying his football.

On Tuesday in Rome, against Champions League round-of-16 opponents Lazio, the Bayern Munich left-back paused briefly on the ball before hitting turbo and playfully swerving past Adam Marusic, who, left in the 20-year-old’s dust, made a futile lunge at thin air.

Had Davies been holding a hockey stick, we’d have said he deked his man. But it was with a ball at his feet that this Canadian once again made the highlight reel — something a number of his countrymen are doing on a regular basis of late in the European leagues.

A bit later in the same match, the 20-year-old blazed back from up-field to catch Manuel Lazzari, preventing a cross into the Bayern goalmouth. It was a decent Andre De Grasse impression, and you just get the feeling that if the two met on the track, the footballer would give the sprinter a run for his money.

Yes, it’s a good time to be a fan of Canadian men’s football, especially with World Cup qualifying just ahead and a Gold Cup to follow this summer. But we don’t have to wait until then to see the best Canadians showcased on television. Many are already excelling week in, week out in elite competitions overseas.

Back in December, at home to Standard Liege in the Europa League, Scott Arfield made a perfectly-timed run into the attacking third to receive Ryan Kent’s cutback. He needed just a single touch to stroke the ball into the near corner, and his winner kept Rangers ahead of Benfica in Group D.

Last week, in the round-of-16 of the same competition, he executed an eye-popping seven tackles and two interceptions as Rangers prevailed 4-3 at Royal Antwerp.

Arfield, the Canada captain, has scored four goals and assisted five others in the Scottish Premiership so far this season. He is playing an important role in an unbeaten team that is romping to a first title since 2011, and, just as importantly, denying archrivals Celtic a 10th in a row.

Speaking of titles, it may be too soon to label Lille the favourites in Ligue 1, even if they’re top of the French top flight after 26 rounds. This, after all, is a division in which the Paris Saint-Germain super-team is always expected to prevail, although they’re currently four points back of Les Dogues ahead of this weekend’s matches.

Lille is also where the most expensive Canadian footballer in history is popping in the goals.

Since making that record-setting €30 million move from Gent in August, Jonathan David has scored seven times — second only to Burak Yilmaz on a team where keeping the ball out of its net is the priority.

Near the end of January, and with PSG threatening to pull ahead in the standings, David had the presence of mind — and the positioning — to smack the ball into goal after ‘keeper Romain Salin parried it in his direction following a corner.

Lille have been in first place ever since, helped along by another David goal at Bordeaux on February 3 and a brace at Nantes just four days later. He hasn’t scored in the two matches since, but the brief barren patch could well be put behind him when Strasbourg visit Stade Pierre-Mauroy on Sunday.

Cyle Larin ended a six-match drought of his own, Friday, when he opened the scoring for Besiktas against Denizlispor. The goal was his 13th of the season, and he thought he had a 14th shortly thereafter, only for his tally to be stroked off for handball.

On Jan. 6, the 25-year-old put in one of the best all-time performances by a Canadian in Europe when he notched a quadruple and added an assist in a 6-0 thrashing of Rizespor. Should he and David establish an understanding in the Canadian attack, this country could all of a sudden have the best strike partnership in CONCACAF.

Besiktas, of course, are also the long-time home of Atiba Hutchinson, who has turned back the clock this campaign.

The 38-year-old has started 22 matches in 2020-21, scoring three goals and assisting four. His 92.8 per cent passing rate is second only to Konyaspor’s Deni Milosevic, and his excellent positioning means he rarely has to throw himself into a tackle or pick up a booking.

Hutchinson has previously hinted that he’ll soon retire from the Canadian national team, although it’s believed he’ll make himself available for World Cup qualifying and the Gold Cup. His next international cap will be his 85th — just four shy of Julian de Guzman’s record.

Never before have so many male Canadian footballers excelled in Europe at the same time, and these are just five of them. There’s a distinct possibility that each will conclude their club schedules with championships, and that success can only bolster a national mentality that continues to be rather brittle on the world stage.

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Canadian players abroad are enjoying their football. Canadians are enjoying watching them. Here’s hoping the enjoyment continues when they, footballers and fans alike, don the red and white in a few weeks and later this year.

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