The highly-rated 18-year-old is joining up with Niko Kovac’s first team for their winter training camp in Doha as he aims to impress his new manager
Bayern Munich have confirmed that Alphonso Davies will wear the No.19 shirt for the Bundesliga giants following his move from Vancouver Whitecaps.
The 18-year-old is considered one of the brightest talents in football, with Bayern having agreed to sign him back in July 2018 for $13.5 million (€11.5m/£10m) – the highest fee ever paid for a Major League Soccer player.
Davies was allowed to finish the MLS season with Vancouver – who ended the campaign in eighth in the Western Conference, with the Canadian teenager scoring twice in his final game against Portland Timbers.
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And having now officially joined up with Bayern, Davies has been included as part of the 29-man squad that will travel to Doha for the club’s annual winter training camp.
Indeed, head coach Niko Kovac confirmed back in October that, despite Davies’s inexperience at the top level, he would be considered a first-team player.
He told reporters: “If you spend so much money on a young player, you will not park him in the second team.”
In announcing the squad that heads to Qatar on January 4, Bayern also revealed that Davies will wear the No.19 shirt for his new club.
He follows the likes of Sebastian Rudy, Mario Gotze, Alexander Baumjohann, Jan Schlaudraff, Julio dos Santos and Carsten Jancker in inheriting the squad number.
Bayern will spend six days in Doha although will not play a friendly match, as has been the case in the past.
Speaking about the trip, and what he aimed to get out of it, Kovac told the club’s official website: “We want to fine-tune a lot of things in Doha, including fitness and technical-tactical elements.
“And we have to begin preparing for our first opponent so we can get off to a good start at Hoffenheim.
“The lads got a little programme for the days after new year so they weren’t starting from scratch in Doha. It means they’ve already had some sort of workload.”
Bayern face Hoffenheim on January 18 as they aim to claw their way back into the Bundesliga title race.
Kovac’s side trail Dortmund by six points – the first time in eight years that they’ve not been leading the standings going into the winter break in Germany.