Canadian stars gamble on themselves

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This article was published 06/12/2024 (665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David are betting on themselves. It’s a high-risk game for each of them, and for Canadians at home their gambles can seem either fascinating, frustrating or both at the same time.

They are two of the top men’s footballers this country has ever produced — probably the top two — and it’s understandable fans of the national team would want them happy and settled and productive at the clubs that pay their wages.

Yet, there is also a certain Canadian impulse that prefers they go about their business quietly, humbly, without drawing too much attention to themselves, or to the flag they represent.

Is it fair? Of course not. Their peer superstars routinely play the transfer market to their advantage and are often admired for their guile in doing so. If they disappoint the teams they leave behind, they also excite the ones they join up with.

They should also be expected to get what they can from professional sports while the getting is good. It’s not personal; it’s strictly business.

It’s also a dangerous game, and a potentially embarrassing one as well.

Remember the Peter Odemwingie fiasco of 2013? The West Brom striker turned up at QPR, which he expected to join, and even gave a mini press conference before a long, humiliating wait in a parking lot that ended with him being informed that the transfer hadn’t been completed, after all.

In other words, it’s possible to overplay one’s hand, leaving everybody red in the face. Practically speaking, the players’ agents bear some responsibility when it comes to advising their clients as to what is feasible, what is foreseeable and what is merely speculative.

In David’s case, his Axia Sports Management representation is already making its own headlines in the Spanish and Italian press for reportedly requesting a handling fee of around €10 million. The Lille striker has also expressed his desire to join Barcelona, which the city’s Sport daily says has put undue pressure on the club to conclude the transaction.

That the Primera Division leaders are interested in David is not something they’ve hidden, but they’ve also returned a negotiation volley of their own. They worry, claims Sport, the 24-year-old could struggle against the deeper-lying defensive lines of the Spanish top flight – a concern they think might justify a reduction in his €6 million salary demand.

Whether or not they’re right — and they probably are — Barcelona, as well as Inter and AC Milan, may suddenly find themselves in positions of strength. David’s contract expires at the end of June, and as it runs down, his suitors may simply wait him out in a sort of reverse bidding war. But that’s the gamble he’s taken.

Davies, for his part, may well have wisened up to this.

Like his international teammate, his contract expires in the summer, which means he can sign a pre-contract anywhere as early as January. As by far the most prestigious of ATG Sports Management’s roster of clients, his will be a deal his agents want to cash in on.

Manchester United are a club they’ve recently targeted, but only after talks with Real Madrid seemed to stall. Then, most recently, Sky Germany reported the Bayern Munich left-back was close to signing an extension that would keep him with the Bavarian giants long-term.

Given a player can hardly upgrade on Bayern — unless Real Madrid or Barcelona come calling — and that the club would like to make him part of a renewed project with the likes of Jamal Musiala, who’s set to sign the biggest contract in Bundesliga history, Davies may indeed be set to stay where he is.

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If so, he’ll have successfully played some very big clubs off against one another, in which case he’ll come off looking quite savvy.

Nothing is signed yet. Not for him; not for David. As it stands, come July they’ll be playing nowhere. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. As they get further into December the urgency to put pen to paper could well switch from prospective clubs to themselves.

It would then be a staring contest — a match-up of who blinks first. Those are the sorts of games the clubs tend to win.

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