Listen to this article
Approximately 5 minutes
The audio version of this article was created using text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.
A touching story led Alfie Jones to an unexpected gift with the Canadian men's soccer team, and the thin thread of connection now feels more like the pull of gravity.
This week Jones, an outstanding English-born centre-back from Championship side Middlesbrough, made his first visit to Canada for the seemingly unlikely purpose of representing it.
On Tuesday, he sat in the team hotel in Toronto with a maple leaf over his heart. “I’m just trying to take it all in,” he said, “and enjoy every moment and do the best I can.”
He was only waiting to take the oath of citizenship. This was still the case Wednesday afternoon. Without it, he will not be able to play in Thursday's friendly against Ecuador at BMO Field, the next test in the team's journey to next summer's home World Cup.
“We’ll see what happens in the next 24 to 36 hours,” head coach Jesse Marsh said.
If Jones can make his promise in time, he will have a chance to show his now fellow Canadians the strength that flows through him like blood.
“I'm quite an emotional guy, I'm a very passionate guy,” he said. “Now I have a badge on my chest. I'm here to represent him the best I can, on and off the field. Obviously, not many people here know my identity, but they will see: either I'm all in or I'm nothing.”
Jones is able to play for Canada because one of his grandmothers was born in Hillcrest, Alta. Her family emigrated to Canada from England; when she was a teenager, they were tossed aside by adversity and homesickness. “There were rumors that it was due to the weather,” Jones said.
Before moving to Middlesbrough, Jones played at Hull with Canadian Liam Millar. The two men shared a sauna last season and Millar was so homesick that he brought it up. Jones mentioned his grandmother, who died when he was a child, and rarely spoke about his time in Alberta.
“I wish I could ask her questions, come back here with her, put this puzzle together,” Jones, 28, said. “Unfortunately, this is not the case.”
But in retrospect, while an accident of history may seem purposeful, her torn birth certificate became her grandson's ticket back to Canada. After the fatal sauna, Millar called Jesse Marsh, his head coach, and told him about Jones. Marsh called Jones and work began to obtain his citizenship.
“I didn’t know if grandparents were enough,” Jones said. “Luckily she was.”
Jones joins 21-year-old goalkeeper Owen Goodman, who took the oath of citizenship last month, among the ranks of new faces – and new Canadians – on Marsh's ever-expanding squad.
Goodman has stronger ties to Canada, spending eight years of his childhood in Alliston, Ont., before returning to England to continue his soccer career with Crystal Palace. But at Tuesday's chilly practice, Goodman wore a balaclava and Jones bareheaded.
“Just a base layer under a jumper,” he said of his cold-weather clothing choices. On Monday, during his first practice under Marsh, he realized he had dressed too warm. “It was so intense,” Jones said. “I felt it in my lungs a little bit, I won’t lie.”
Otherwise, Marsh liked what he saw from his latest dual citizenship. “Alfie has fitted in really well,” he said. “He understands a lot of our football concepts and is a high-level player.”
There is good reason for the desire to assimilate Jones.
Canada's defense was undermined by injury. Alphonso Davies, Moise Bombito and Samuel Adekugbe continue their lengthy recoveries. Alistair Johnston also revealed this week that he will require surgery on a torn hamstring and will be ruled out for at least three months.
Luc de Fougerolles, a 20-year-old centre-back, replaced Bombito admirably. But he too was out of that window with a sports hernia, leaving Marsh to look for backups for his backups, sometimes further afield.
“It's never nice to see someone injured, but this allowed me to come into camp and prove my worth,” Jones said. “Nothing is guaranteed and I need to prove that I'm good enough to be here. Jesse brought me and I'm grateful. But now it's up to me.”
Or at least it will be, if Alfie Jones, a proud Canadian, can swear in time the loyalty he is so desperate to demonstrate.
