Canadian soccer star Alphonso Davies has been named CONCACAF’s Most Valuable Men’s Player for 2021 after helping his country qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986.
Posted yesterday at 11:43 p.m.
CONCACAF leaders announced the winners of individual honors for the past year on Monday.
The 21-year-old from Edmonton, Davies has appeared in seven World Cup qualifying matches in 2021.
In those games, Canada posted a 3-0-4 record. That streak includes a 4-1 victory over Panama on October 13, during which Davies scored a spectacular goal.
Coming out of nowhere along the right wing, Davies stole the ball from the feet of defender Harold Cummings, who thought the ball was about to go out of bounds.
The speedy Canadian winger then beat defender Fidel Escobar and after using teammate Jonathan David as a decoy, fired a shot that crippled goalkeeper Luis Mejia, giving Canada a 2-1 lead.
Canada followed that up with two big wins in November in Edmonton – 1-0 over Costa Rica and 2-1 over Mexico – which propelled the Men’s National Team to the top of the third round standings qualifying.
Davies missed all six of Canada’s qualifying matches in 2022 after being sidelined with symptoms of myocarditis – a mild heart condition – following an episode of COVID-19.
Canada went 4-2-0 in those matches to secure its ticket to the World Cup, which begins in November in Qatar.
Davies has recently returned to training with Bayern Munich and he has made it known he expects to return to the collar soon.