As the Golazo 100 continues, the second group of players includes Alphonso Davies who was the highest-ranked player in Concacaf coming in at 74 following another impressive season at Bayern Munich. The only other Concacaf representative ahead of Christian Pulisic, who came in at 81, Davies is carrying the banner for both Canada and the entire region as he stars in Europe at only 23 years old, but considering that he has won the Champions League, Club World Cup, Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, UEFA Super Cup, and German Super Cup, it’s also hard to deny Davies’ credentials.
Debuting for the Vancouver Whitecaps in July of 2016, Davies became the second youngest player to ever play in MLS at 15 years, 257 days old and he shined as a winger for them with eight goals and 12 assists before being sold to Bayern Munich in 2019. While it seemed like Davies would end up being another young player to be loaned out and maybe never make it with a big club due to the level up from MLS to Europe, instead he was converted to left back and became one of the top defenders in the world so far, sticking with Bayern the entire time.
Looking at his ranking compared to Pulisic’s, one of the biggest differences is that Davies has logged 2000 or more league minutes for the German giants in three of five seasons since becoming a full-time starter while also being integral to their Champions League play as well. But what’s the most glaring in the Golazo 100 is that the Concacaf representation ends with Davies and Pulisic.
A region on the rise or decline?
Within the FIFA men’s rankings, both the United States and Mexico are in the top 15 teams in the world coming in at 11 and 14, respectively, while Canada don’t appear until 49, rounding out the Concacaf representatives in the top 50 nations in the world. Considering the region’s performance at the World Cup in Qatar where only the United States made it out of the group stage of the tournament and that no team made it past the round of 16, it’s hard to argue with those rankings and it did lead to players being dinged in the Golazo 100 where international play also is a factor.
Jonathan David, Weston McKennie, Antonee Robinson, Chucky Lozano, and Santiago Gimenez were the only other Concacaf players to receive votes. Each are among the top players of their national teams but a total of only six players in the entire region receiving votes shows that Concacaf has a long way to go. There are theories the region is made weaker by only playing among themselves which doesn’t prepare Concacaf nations for larger tournaments.
They’ll have a chance both to combat that and get preparation for the 2026 World Cup in the Copa America this summer where they’ll face CONMEBOL’s best teams. If the United States, Canada, and Mexico are able to get out of their groups, it will be a learning experience that shows that these teams can compete with anyone in the world. If they can’t, it’s more evidence that they need to improve ahead of a World Cup on Concacaf soil without much time to do it. These are things that will show where Concacaf truly stands as getting past the world’s best sides will get more of their players not only abroad but into worldwide ranking lists as well.
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