A Request for Charlie Davies

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 | View Comments
Sochaux president Alexandre Lacombe told a French newspaper yesterday that it will be at least six months before it's clear whether Charlie Davies will be a top-flight player again.

"According to doctors, it will take at least 18 months from the date of the accident to hope for real progress and know more. It's a miracle he's still alive and doing well. Right now, Charlie isn't a Ligue 1-level player, that's for sure, but he continues to work hard ..."

Lacombe's comments come a year after the accident that derailed the American striker's career and days after Davies' unfortunate speeding incident with teammate Jaques Faty.


Charlie is making progress, and provided an assist in his first start for Sochaux's "B" side over the weekend. Small steps.


In light of the year anniversary of the accident, the trouble he found himself in this week and the revelation that it might take as much as six more months before we know whether Charlie will again be the player he once was, I have a simple request for him: lay low.


If six months is what it will take, stay out of the news for all of those six months. No speeding tickets. No favors for teammates and taking the rap for speeding tickets. Keep the tweets to a minimum, and if there must be tweets, stick to trash talking US teammates about FIFA 11 or talking about the food in France. Politely decline interview requests from everyone that asks, be it ESPN, Sports Illustrated, World Soccer Daily, the BC newspaper, every blog and website, so on and so forth.  Don't talk about the work, just do the work.


Put your head down and focus on your comeback and nothing but your comeback.


A lower profile seems prudent after the events of the past week. Whether or not Charlie's decision to help Faty - then go back on the truth and accept the fine - was a major transgression worthy of bitter reaction from fans, it brings undo attention and crticism. It's difficult to imagine his club took the news well, and it's possible Charlie still isn't back in their good graces after bad-mouthing officials when Sochaux declared him unfit for the World Cup. Doing everything he can to stay out of the public eye is the best thing Davies can do at this point. Added pressure and scrutiny are doing him no favors.


Is Charlie Davies a brat?  Maybe, maybe not, but skipping curfew a year ago was a disastrous decision, and the aforementioned public outcry over Sochaux's assessment of his condition pre-World Cup looks petulant in retrospect.   The speeding ticket incident sapped some of his popular support, and neither his club or country will look too kindly on it. If all Charlie cares about is getting back to full strength, he should do nothing but work towards that goal. Talking doesn't help with the comeback. Bad decisions certainly don't either.


Charlie consistently tells us, via Twitter and various interviews, that he's on the right track, that his return to the field as the player he was before the accident is imminent. Charlie's confidence and belief are no doubt important factors in his ability to comeback; but he need not express them publicly for them to exist. Not talking won't sap his drive.


There would be nothing better, as an American soccer supporter and fan of Charlie Davies, than to look up in six months to see that he's back on the field for Sochaux's first team. Six months of relative quiet, Charlie staying out of trouble in every conceivable way, with the heart-warming climax of his long awaited comeback coming out of no where. Charlie doesn't need any more distractions between now and then.  He should endeavor to keep them to a minimum.


For all of those people who aren't enamored with him now, for everyone who has thrown in the towel on caring about Davies because he made a bad decision, his staying out of the spotlight until he is completely back might prove that he's not a brat, that he has the ability to stay on track with no trouble, that his attitude is right and that he's capable of pulling off the miracle.


Keep your head down Charlie. Get fully fit, get back in Sochaux's first team and good graces, and get in the news because of your play and nothing else.
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