Canadian soccer star Alphonso Davies has revealed he will donate his World Cup winnings to charity.
Posted at 9:01 a.m.
“Canada has welcomed me and my family and given us the opportunity for a better life,” Davies said in a social media post Tuesday. He allowed me to live my dreams. It’s a great honor to play for Canada and I want to return the favor. So I decided to donate my World Cup winnings this year to charity. »
The 21-year-old Bayern Munich player was born in a Ghanaian refugee camp after his parents fled civil war in Liberia. The family came to Canada when Davies was five, and eventually settled in Edmonton.
The exact amount of Davies’ share of Canadian revenue from the World Cup, which begins Nov. 21 in Qatar, has yet to be determined.
Canada Soccer and the Men’s National Team are still in negotiations to determine compensation. The dissatisfaction of the players has also pushed them to boycott a friendly match scheduled against Panama in June in Vancouver. They reportedly requested an after-tax payout equivalent to 40% of the expected eight-figure payout.
During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, FIFA paid a total of US$791 million to the 32 participating teams, a 40% increase from the 2014 tournament.
Of this amount, US$400 million was paid out in prizes, ranging from US$38 million for the winner, US$28 million for the second and US$24 million for the third, to US$8 million. US dollars for each of the teams eliminated in the group stage.
Each qualifying team also received US$1.5 million to cover preparation costs, meaning all teams were guaranteed at least US$9.5 million each for their participation in the World Cup. world 2018.
Davies quickly became the face of the Canadian team, currently ranked fourth in CONCACAF and 43e in the world ranking. With an 8-2-4 record, the Canadian men turned heads as they topped the final round of World Cup qualifying in the region, which spans North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Davies, who has 12 goals and 15 assists in 32 appearances for Canada, was sidelined earlier this year after developing symptoms of myocarditis, a heart problem, following an episode of COVID-19 . Illness has kept him out of Canada’s last six World Cup qualifiers.
Davies returned to action in early April and was named CONCACAF Men’s Player of the Year for 2021 that same month.
The young Canadian signed a contract extension with Bayern in April 2020 which will keep him with the German powerhouse until June 2025.
Davies has already won the UEFA Champions League (2020), the German Premier League (2019, 2020 and 2021), the German Cup (2019 and 2020), the German Super Cup (2020, 2021 and 2022), the UEFA Super Cup (2020) and the FIFA Club World Cup (2020) with Bayern.
Davies signed his contract with Bayern from the Vancouver Whitecaps in the summer of 2018 in a transfer worth US$22 million, an MLS record at the time. He started training with Bayern after the end of the Whitecaps season.
Davies shared the story of coming to Canada during the FIFA Congress in Moscow in June 2018 as part of North America’s joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup. Canadian credit his powerful presentation with helping to get the bid across the finish line.
In March 2021, Davies became a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.