Barcelona rejected Alphonso Davies for not being good enough

Karan Tejwani

15 Sept 2022 11:50 BST
3 min read

Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies the world’s most valuable youngster — © ProShots

Alphonso Davies has become one of the world’s best left-backs in recent times at Bayern Munich, but things could’ve been very different for him had he made another move.

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Davies moved to Bayern Munich in 2019 and despite starting as a left winger, he started playing at left-back for them and has risen to become one of the game’s finest.

In his first season, he was an integral part of the team that went on to win the treble of the Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB Pokal, forming a key part of the Bayern attacking force.

He was always a bright talent, and Barcelona had the chance to bring him to the Camp Nou a year before he went to Germany but refused that opportunity.

Barca's loss was Bayern's gain

According to Hristo Stoichkov, the Barcelona legend who worked for the club as a scout after his retirement, the Catalan club weren’t interested in signing Davies.

Stoichkov was mainly responsible for scouting in the North American region and spotted many great talents from there, including Davies, who was still at Vancouver Whitecaps at the time.

Speaking to TUDN, Stoichkov said: “I recommended Alphonso Davies and they told me no, that he played in MLS and was Canadian. That he did not have a sufficient level for Barcelona.

Big team performance on a special champions league night 🙏🏾 #AD19⚡️ pic.twitter.com/hHlHbVAF2D
— Alphonso Davies (@AlphonsoDavies) September 14, 2022

“I also told them to take Diego Lainez, César Montes and 'Chucky' [Hirving] Lozano. The same thing: 'They are not from our philosophy', that's what they told me,” the Bulgarian added.

Barcelona have struggled at left-back in recent times, with Jordi Alba getting older, forcing them to sign Marcos Alonso and Alejandro Balde being promoted to the first-team.

Davies would’ve been a useful signing given his young age, potential and how much he has improved in various areas, making this one of the bigger transfer mistakes by Barcelona in recent years.