His devastating ride against FC Barcelona is certainly the most striking action of this Champions League. Since Friday August 14, the images of Alphonso Davies erasing in the same action Lionel Messi, Arturo Vidal and Nelson Semedo, have been around the world. This performance highlighted a precocious talent, who turned professional at the age of 15 across the Atlantic, in Major League Soccer, with the Vancouver Whitecaps. Four years later, the Canadian defender despite his young age (19) put on the bench Lucas Hernandez, yet world champion with France and who remains the most expensive transfer from Bayern Munich (80 million euros).
In early 2018, his training club had set the price of the boy at a derisory amount in view of his current services: between 4 and 6 million euros. In June, Saint-Etienne is the first French club to take a concrete interest in the Canadian nugget. The entire Saint-Etienne recruiting unit was quickly convinced of its potential, but "the club management does not have the means to pay this sum for a player under the age of 18, who due to European regulations on minors, could not have arrived in Europe until the following year, ”explains former Saint-Etienne sports director David Wantier.
The bad method of Antero Henrique
The Greens supervise this training winger, who became a left-back, in mid-July. “On that date, PSG got involved. Bayern is already there. And the amount of the player increases. "We were talking about 8 to 10 million euros then a few days later of 12 million", remembers Jérôme Meary, former consultant for the MLS in charge of international transfers. In an attempt to bring in Davies, the two Champions League finalists use different methods. The Bavarians contact Vancouver directly, while Paris, via its then sporting director Antero Henrique, uses its own networks to directly convince the player. The MLS club appreciates very moderately this way of proceeding and then favors the option Bayern Munich which has chosen the institutional route, before allowing its hope to visit the German champion, then on tour in the United States. Everything is done officially.
For its part, PSG continues to wish to enlist the player but contacts are still not live with the club, to the astonishment of the North American franchise. Paris was however warned of the strategy to adopt. “To make a transfer, you have to find the right path. We contacted the MLS, which holds the player's rights, ”recalls David Wantier. Jérôme Meary adds: “The right strategy was to convince the club, while the player listened to the sports director with whom he has an almost fatherly relationship. They were the ones who would decide on the direction to be given to the player's career. "