Is Alphonso Davies a different player too?

You can read many sentences like "he's a different player" and often the expectations that the media create around a talent do not correspond to the truth. Alphonso Davies, however, is the exception that confirms the rule. Yes, because the Canadian player is completely different from his other peers, in all respects. Leaving aside the technical and physical characteristics - no one is currently able to reach a record speed of 36.51 km/h - Bayern Munich's #19 is the new prototype of a footballer in terms of public image and self-representation far from a field from game.

At the dawn of his 20 years, Davies has already shattered most of the primates that could be shattered, but the most surprising aspects are off-the-pitch, far from the grass he now loves most thanks to his parents and friends who by vocation in the strict sense. The story behind a boy who looks so much like a predestined one is as exciting as it is dramatic. The memories are not faded and, indeed, Alphonso Davies uses them to affirm his desire to be unique. The memory of the tiny "house" in the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana, far from the Liberia that he had to leave because of the civil war, are one of the reasons why Davies is so unconventional. Memories are unconventional, ways of doing are unconventional, its social profiles and self-projection not tied to football are unconventional. And not for everyone the concept of "earliness" has implications similar to those of Balotelli. Switching over the Edmonton Strikers and Vancouver Whitecaps - with whom he made his MLS debut at 15 years, 8 months and 15 days - within 5 years to the Canadian National Team and Bayern Munich is not immediate if there is no raw material other than other natural elements.

Because Davies is like the joker that you fish in the Fifa Ultimate Team packages, the system bug that projects you into a future that always seems too far away and that is already here: against Borussia Dortmund, at the start of the championship, he won the remote duel with Hakimi, in the title match against Werder Bremen, touched 37 km / h in one click. In muscle and hyperkinetic football of the 21st century, Davies still appears stronger, faster, most of all, a player who is already done and finished despite not yet being 20 years old.

A superstar in the purest sense of the term, the new face of global and globalized football, which knows how to make itself attractive to big brands also through the care of his social image. And if on Instagram, with the exception of the stories that reveal his inveterate sneakerhead soul, communication is sparse, almost minimal in limiting himself to sharing images related to the last game, Nike's training and promotional posts, on TikTok Davies he traced the new profile of the social player: amused, fun and able to offer always new and engaging content. A full-fledged entertainer, who makes his daily life the favorite show of almost a million followers. His video parody of one of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's most famous scenes - in which he plays, alone, five characters singing to the rhythm of "I Want In That Way" by the Backstreet Boys - was one of the most viewed, clicked and downloaded during the lockdown. His interpretation of "I Will Always Love You" is the demonstration of a consummate stand-up comedian expression, a constant source of inspiration for the memetic universe of which he is happy, indeed proud, to be a part. This is the typical communication of American sportsmen, which Davies is successfully clearing customs in Europe, and which constitutes the new frontier of the interaction between athletes and fans, especially the younger ones. Simple, direct, immediate: "All the videos you see are the result of the ideas that come to me while I'm lying on the sofa" he said in an interview with Bayern club magazine 51. "I think everything works better when you don't take yourself too seriously , just as I think that a certain amount of self-esteem doesn't hurt. The important thing is to find the right balance between things: believe in yourself and try not to always be angry".

His spontaneity is the ideal means to convey any type of message in the era of social media, his profile perfectly adheres to what companies are looking for when it comes to identifying the ideal testimonial to expand in markets that are not necessarily related to the field . It is no coincidence that, in 2018, the MLS chose him for a speech in support of the candidacy of the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup:

And if it all seems too far, don't forget that time runs fast. Just like Alphonso Davies. The future is already today.