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How a World Cup match when he was 8 changed ex-US soccer star Charlie Davies’ life

Somewhere between the off ramp from I-95 to Route 1 in Foxborough, on June 23, 1994 Charlie Davies’ life changed forever.

Davies was about to turn 8 when his dad took Charlie and his brother Justin to old Foxboro Stadium for a World Cup match. Davies, the ex-U.S. Men’s National Team forward, thinks about that day often anyway. But the memory will be especially poignant when the United States and Foxborough host games again beginning this weekend.

Davies didn’t know what to expect 32 years ago. Soccer was something he played, not something he or anybody else watched. There was no MLS and to get games from faraway England or Italy or Spain on TV, fans needed satellite dishes, which were both cumbersome and expensive. The Davies family didn’t have one.

But as they inched along through the timeless Foxborough game-day traffic, Davies’ eyes and his excitment both grew.

“The anticipation is building up because once you get on Route 1 and the traffic’s crazy,” he recalled smiling. “You’re seeing flags and people dancing and music and you’re like, ‘whoa, this is something big.’”

All of this for soccer? He wanted in.

The game itself was forgettable. The 54,453 fans saw Bolivia vs. South Korea play to a scoreless draw. Neither team even had many chances. Other than six yellow cards and four reds, the scorebook was largely empty. There wasn’t much to remember, but for Davies, who grew up in New Hampshire and went to high school in Massachusetts, it was unforgettable.

Not just the game. As they roamed through the tailgaters, Charlie stopped to play street soccer in the parking lot with other kids. He tried Korean BBQ. He doesn’t remember the name of the Bolivian meat dish somebody gave him, but he remembers it tasted good. And more than that, he remember the feeling he had. Like a door had opened revealing a larger world.

“What drew me in as a young kid is the element of interacting with so many different ethnicities and, and languages and foods,” Davies said. “You come into this melting pot of so many different countries and the people are so warm and excited. There’s a different element with the World Cup.”

“I was amazed. From the face paint to some of the gear,” Davies continued. “It was almost like I was in the North Pole. That’s the type of excitement I had. It was just so much fun and it lifted my spirits so much. I told myself this is what I want to do for rest of my life.”

Everything about Davies’ soccer origin story feels fated. He started playing soccer by accident. When he handed his father Kofi, a Gambian immigrant, the permission slip, Charlie thought it was for Pop Warner football. He couldn’t bear to disappoint him when he saw how excited his dad was for him to play soccer.

He hadn’t been playing long when a friend of Kofi’s offered them tickets.

After that day in Foxborough, training with his dad had a purpose. Soccer in America grew with Davies’ aspirations. Major League Soccer launched and grew roots.

Davies’ talent matched his ambition. He played in prep school and became a star at Boston College where he was a finalist for the Hermann Trophy as the national player of the year as a junior.

He turned pro and played three seasons in Sweden and two for Sochaux in France’s top league, while gaining momentum as a forward for the U.S. Men’s National Team. Davies had 17 caps and scored four goals for the USMNT. He would have been a likely candidate to play for the U.S. at the 2010 World Cup, but he was in a serious car accident late in 2009 and wasn’t cleared in time to play.

While that ended his national team career, Davies resumed his career with a season in Denmark followed by six in Major League Soccer.

He spent the first four years of his MLS career with the New England Revolution, making that same Route 1 commute to home games.

After retiring in 2017, Davies stayed in the game and stayed busy. He’s a broadcaster for the Revolution, a studio analyst for CBS and writes a soccer column for The Athletic all while chasing around his twin 10-year-old sons.

Like their dad, Rhys, and Dakota Davies both love soccer, but that means something entirely different that it did when he was their age.

“They have YouTube, they have apps, they have phones, they have... it’s available everywhere and anywhere,” Davies said. “Not only can you watch the U.S. Men’s National Team, you can watch every league.”

But even though his boys have far more exposure to elite soccer, Davies said this World Cup, the first that they’ll be old enough to remember and appreciate, will still be something special. He is excited to see it through their eyes.

“So much so. I can look back and say this is the first World Cup that they’re going to remember and watch all the games,” he said. “They have their little sticker books and brackets.”

But his excitement is more than just a reflection of theirs. Having the tournament in the US brings him back to the pivotal moment in his life.

“The World Cup is what really gave me the fire inside to experience that and literally tell myself, ‘I got to do whatever it takes to get there,” he said. “That was the motivator that I needed to stay disciplined right there. I definitely look back at that World Cup as being the spark to my life.”

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