Friend earned 32 caps for Canada between 2003 and 2011 and the 39-year-old former forward, who is chief executive of Canadian Premier League team Pacific FC, marvelled at Davies impact.
It s unbelievable, Friend told Stats Perform News. I can certainly tell you sitting here in Canada, being part of the Canadian game currently with the Canadian Premier League which I m involved in and really trying to grow the game, what he s done singlehandedly as a Canadian player at his age, it s going to be very hard to repeat for any young Canadian.
If you told me a year-and-a-half ago that we were going to have a young Canadian winning the Champions League and starting, we all would ve laughed. His growth in the last couple of years has honestly been a joy to watch as a former national team player, being involved in the game on a business side here. Once in a while, it takes a player like that to put this country on the map. We ve never been a footballing country. Our national team has always sort of struggled at international level, never played on the world stage at the World Cup. It s gonna take once in a while a country like this to be put on the map and be respected.
I can certainly tell you that what he s done has opened up the door for a lot of young Canadians. I m getting a lot of calls, asking if there s another Alphonso out there. Is Canada a hotbed for young talent? Even you look at Jonathan David, young Canadian who just transferred to Lille. A bigger transfer than Alphonso. Those are two of the top young players in Europe and they re Canadian. I would certainly say there are more Canadians out there. It s challenging when we re not making the World Cup to be on that level. We need more young Canadians going off to Europe.
