Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies has been a "nothing short of a miracle" for Canadian soccer, according to Canadian Premier League commissioner David Clanachan.
Davies moved from the Vancouver Whitecaps to Bayern Munich in July 2018, but has broken out in a major way this past season in the Bundesliga, already leading to a knock-on effect back in Canada.
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"The interesting thing is that these young players [in Canada] they never had that light to look forward to, there was never light at the end of the tunnel; I call it the Northern Star," Clanachan told ESPN. "There was never a Northern Star. So the Alphonso Davies' of the world, truthfully, it's nothing short of a miracle."
Clanachan added that he believes Davies is possibly the best left-back in the world alongside Liverpool's Andy Robertson, with the 19-year-old's development boosting the CPL, in which the average age of players is between 23 and 24 years old.
"Now, all of a sudden, you've got a generation of kids growing up. They now have heroes to look at and something to aspire to," said Clanachan.
The Canadian Premier League is looking to become a platform to find future stars like Davies and will begin its refined second-ever season with "The Island Games" being held in a bubble at Prince Edward Island starting on Aug. 13.
The eight teams will participate in a 35-game tournament to crown a season winner, although it wasn't easy to organize the event with the COVID-19 pandemic and harsh winter in much of Canada meaning the schedule was tight.
"We knew we couldn't get much past starting up by the middle of August, otherwise we'd have never got something in," said Clanachan. "We were right up to the wall, but we were able to get it done. If we hadn't have had this done and it was two weeks later from now, yeah probably we'd be in a different potential solution. The good news is that we got it done. "