“I really believe in second chances,” said Jurgen Klopp in 2017, via the Liverpool Echo.
Four years on, his unshakeable faith may be rewarded.
Klopp was still on sabbatical when Liverpool first got wind of Alphonso Davies’ talent five years ago.
According to Canadian newspaper La Provence, the Merseyside giants sent scouts to watch a 15-year-old whippersnapper run rings around players twice his age for Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS.
Liverpool were still keen come the summer of 2018 too, according to the Toronto Sun. But when Davies packed his bags and moved across the Atlantic later that month, Munich, rather than Merseyside, was his eventual destination.
Three years on, the £9 million fee Bayern paid for a teenage Davies looks like one of the most inspired pieces of transfer business in modern European football.
At the age of 21, one of the fastest players on the planet has won almost all there is to win.
And, though Liverpool’s own Andy Robertson would have something to say about this, there’s certainly an argument that there is no better left-back in the game right now than Alphonso Davies.
Will Liverpool sign the ‘new Alphonso Davies’
But what did Klopp say about ‘second chances’?
According to MLS Soccer, Toronto FC starlet Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty is training with Liverpool after a brief spell at Premier League rivals Arsenal. And the similarities between Marshall-Rutty and Davies are impossible to ignore.
Both exploded onto the MLS scene at the age of 15. Both are famed for their explosive bursts of acceleration down the wing. Both have caught the eye of Liverpool, amongst other European giants.
According to The Mail, Bayern Munich are keen on him too. Of course they are.
The new Alphonso Davies?
And, interestingly, it was Marshall-Rutty who broke Davies’ record earlier this year, becoming the youngest ever player to be called up for the Canadian national team.
“I’d say to get compared to (Davies),” Toronto FC’s number 7 told Goal. “Obviously I was honoured, but I don’t really look at breaking history as the youngest player.
“He’s at Bayern Munich and he’s achieved so much, obviously.”
“Jahkeele is the top player in his age group across Canada and the U.S. He is among the top young players in all of North America,” says Toronto’s general manager Ali Curtis.
“He is an incredibly talented young man. He has the potential to be an incredible player moving forward.”
Few would have expected that Davies would go from a relative unknown to household name in just three years at the Allianz Arena. Who knows, maybe in 2024 we’ll be talking in similar terms about Marshall-Rutty.
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