'Time for business': Davies excited to lead Canada at home World Cup

Alphonso Davies is eager and excited.

Eager and excited to get back on the pitch for Canada; to be around his teammates and friends in the locker room; and, most of all, to captain his country at its first-ever home World Cup this summer.

He's had plenty of time to envision the moment. Perhaps more than he wanted.

Davies, Canada's best player, hasn't featured for the national team since tearing the ACL in his right knee on March 23, 2025. Subsequent hamstring issues extended his spell on the sidelines. Only being able to watch from afar during international windows, including the team's recent March camp, has been agonizing.

"I miss it all the time," Davies told theScore about his desire to get back on the pitch with the national team.

The Bayern Munich star always tunes in, despite the time difference in Germany, to see how the squad is performing in its pre-World Cup tuneup matches. The various injuries that have largely robbed him of the last 12 months have been "frustrating," but they haven't dampened his enthusiasm. Quite the opposite, if anything.

"I'm excited to get back playing football with these guys, being in the locker room and making jokes, and preparing for games, preparing to go to war," Davies said.

He's traveled a winding road to reach this point.

"You just have to fight through it and keep a thick skin," said Davies, who announced Wednesday that he's joining Red Bull as a global ambassador.

The 25-year-old is the first Canadian footballer to sign such a sponsorship deal with the energy drink giant. He hopes his success, which now has him rubbing shoulders with the likes of Neymar and other notable athletes from across the sports world, opens similar doors for his compatriots as soccer continues to gain momentum in the country.

Davies is no stranger to firsts, of course. History has a way of following him around.

In 2017, at just 16 years old, he became the youngest player to make his debut for Canada's men's senior team. A year later, Bayern Munich agreed to sign him from the Vancouver Whitecaps in what was, at the time, a record-breaking outbound transfer for Major League Soccer. He's also the only man to ever score a goal for Canada at the World Cup.

And now, he's in line to wear the armband for World Cup matches on home soil, joining an exclusive list of players who've done the same. Many of the game's greatest icons - Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, Pele, and Zinedine Zidane, just to name a few - never got a similar opportunity.

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To the delight (and relief) of Canadian fans, Davies has gradually returned to the pitch after his most recent setback, a reassuring sign that he'll indeed be ready to play this summer.

He appeared off the bench in each of Bayern Munich's last two matches, setting up a stoppage-time winner for the Bundesliga leaders Saturday before showcasing bursts of his trademark speed in Tuesday's riveting matchup against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Slowly, he's working his way back to his best form. Just in time, too.

Despite the squad's significantly improved depth - Davies thinks the current iteration is the best Canadian side he's been a part of - the team has clearly been missing the captain's unique game-breaking ability ahead of its World Cup opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12 in Toronto.

Davies has already visualized the moment when he plans to lead his peers onto the pitch for that contest, though he admits that he can't yet describe the emotions it'll conjure. Those feelings, he points out, can only be truly appreciated in the moment.

Just don't expect him to follow the lead of new international teammate Marcelo Flores and emerge from the tunnel with a striking red hairdo.

"Not me!" Davies quickly replied while laughing after being asked if he might don a similar look. "I'm sure some of the other guys will think about it."

One thing is for certain: He's going to enjoy the historic moment.

"Opening your country to the world, (having the world) come see your beautiful country, it's something special for sure," he said, with his smile growing wider as he recalled his journey from childhood footballer in Edmonton, Alberta, to global star.

"I'd tell that kid, 'You have a rare opportunity to do something very special for your hometown and your country,'" Davies added.

'Time for business'

Davies' special opportunity also happens to be Canada's best one yet to make its mark - and some history - at the men's World Cup. The Canadians, who went winless in their first two tournament appearances in 1986 and 2022, respectively, set a high bar for themselves even before December's draw. Head coach Jesse Marsch believes Canada can not only reach the knockout stage but do so by topping a group that'll pit the tournament co-host against Qatar and Switzerland following its opener versus Bosnia.

That's a bold target for a team yet to register a single point at the tournament, but having Davies at full fitness improves its chances of reaching that goal.

So, too, does Italy's failure to qualify for the competition.

Bosnia's upset victory over the Italians in the World Cup qualifying playoffs has only added to the sentiment across Canada that this could be a transformative summer.

Davies admits that he, like many others, expected Italy to end its staggering World Cup drought and assume the final spot in Group B. But the fact that his opponents will be sporting a different shade of blue "doesn't change anything" in terms of the team's internal expectations, he says.

"All three teams in the group are going to give everything to make it out of the group and make it as far as they can in the World Cup," Davies said. "That's something we know, and that's something we also strive for."

Before looking at the big picture, though, Davies is focusing on a series of smaller victories that can ultimately lead to the end goal.

Score the first goal in a match. Maintain a lead. Get points on the board. Make it out of the group stage. From there? Anything's possible. Perhaps even Davies' dream World Cup matchup with either France or Germany, where he'd have the chance to lock horns with Bayern teammates like Michael Olise or Jamal Musiala after months of friendly World Cup banter in training.

It would be fun to "kick them a little bit," he jokes.

Canada has never had a better chance to accomplish those objectives.

"There's a lot of young players, hungry players, that are willing to give everything for their country. The amount of players we have playing overseas, it's never been like this before, so it's great and very exciting to see," Davies said of the current player pool. "Every player that comes in, they know that their spot is not secure. There's someone that's coming in that might take your spot or might play better than you. So, each and every time we come into camp, there's competition. Nothing's safe. ... And this is the competitiveness that we need in the team to push each other if we want to be where we want to be in the summer."

The team's development has given Marsch tactical flexibility. It's also prompted renewed questions about the best way to extract the most out of Davies, who is both Canada's most explosive attacking threat and one of the game's elite left-backs.

Where, exactly, should he play? Are his attacking talents wasted in a nominally defensive role? Or is his unmatched pace actually more devastating when he starts from a deeper position on the pitch?

Davies considers himself a "new" defender, having been thrust into the role at Bayern in 2019 after injuries to multiple teammates forced a major reshuffling at the back.

For all that he's envisioned, he probably didn't foresee that move. Safe to say it's worked out just fine though.

"For me, I think I can do both, regardless if (Marsch) plays me higher or lower," Davies said. "I can always try to help the team as much as possible depending on where he puts me and what he needs me to do."

That attitude, along with his desire to lead by example, is part of the reason Marsch named Davies captain shortly after becoming Canada's coach in 2024.

"I'm not really a serious type of guy. I like to make jokes, play fun," Davies said of his leadership style. "But as soon as we step on the pitch, now it's time for business."

The World Cup is two months away. It's certainly time for business.