Debeah Davies remembers the guns — not the crack of them, but their presence as a fact of daily life in Monrovia, the way they organised everything. You ate according to them. You moved according to them. You knew whether your children would survive according to them.
When the Second Liberian Civil War came to his family’s doorstep, Debeah and Victoria fled to Buduburam, a refugee camp in Ghana. They built a life in a tin hut not much larger than a minivan. Their fourth-youngest child was born there, on November 2, 2000, and given the name Alphonso.
Less than one percent of the world’s refugees are resettled every year. In 2005, Debeah’s family were among that fraction. A country called Canada said yes. They went to Edmonton, where a shy boy with broken English started kicking a ball with the other boys because that was the one language everyone already spoke.
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On Sunday, at Los Angeles Stadium, Alphonso Davies — captain of Canada, Champions League winner, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, former resident of the Buduburam refugee camp — made his first appearance at this World Cup, having missed the group stage with a hamstring injury. He came on, and Canada were transformed. They won 1-0, Stephen Eustaquio — who had lost both parents within the previous 12 months — scoring in the 92nd minute. They are in the Round of 16 for the first time in their history.
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In goal that night was Milan Borjan, whose family fled the Croatian War of Independence and settled in Canada when he was 13, first in Winnipeg, then Hamilton. After Canada’s win over the United States in January 2022, he put it simply: “Canada gave my family everything. When somebody gives you that much love, you have to return it.”