A year after car crash, forward joins United
Charlie Davies finally made it to RFK Stadium.
Sixteen months after a horrific one-car crash on the George Washington Memorial Parkway denied him the chance to be a part of the U.S. national team’s World Cup qualifier in Washington — a wreck that derailed his professional soccer career and nearly cost him his life — Davies started a new chapter Wednesday, joining D.C. United on a one-year loan from French club Sochaux.
Second thoughts about returning to the site of the accident never crossed his mind.
| Davies notes |
| » The terms of Charlie Davies’ contract and the split between the portion of his salary that will be paid by D.C. United and Sochaux were not disclosed, but Davies will not count as a maximum salaried designated player. |
| » Davies said he initially came back from his injury too quickly and developed many bad habits. “When you lose a ball and you lose another ball and you start hearing guys on your team going, ‘Argh,’ and then after that, you’re isolated from the game because no one wants to play you the ball.” |
| » Davies said he has not kept in contact with the family of Ashley Roberta, the passenger who was killed in the accident, nor the driver, Maria Alejandra Espinoza, from Clarksville, Md., who pled guilty in November to felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and maiming while driving intoxicated. |
“Every day I wake up, I’m reminded of the accident as far as the scars that I have all over my body,” Davies said. “I think my work ethic and my frame of mind have really helped overcome all obstacles that I’ve had to go through. Playing in D.C. is going to be special for me because, of course, the accident happened here. But it’s also going to be the place where I get back on feet and show the world that I’m back and have come back from such tragic injuries.”
Both Davies and D.C. United said those injuries — a broken right femur and tibia, a broken left elbow, a torn knee ligament, facial fractures and a lacerated bladder — no longer are holding Davies back. The rust from his layoff is another story. But it took only a couple days of training with D.C. for the coaching staff to see evidence that Davies was on his way to again becoming the dynamic forward that launched onto the national team scene before the 2010 World Cup.
“He seems to be in the right spots at the right time, and that’s a real talent,” United coach Ben Olsen said. “The speed was there, and that’s a big thing that we were looking at. I’m not going to lie. That was probably the main thing that we wanted to see: How fast is Charlie Davies? We saw him still be able to move.”
Davies hasn’t stopped moving since the accident: “From the hospital bed to the wheelchair to the crutches to walking, then to jogging on a treadmill,” he said.
With his opportunities stalling at Sochaux, Davies decided to return to the United States to a team that not only wants him but can desperately use him to inject life both on and off the field.
“It’s really what I needed,” Davies said. “I needed a new atmosphere, a new environment, and I found it, and I’m extremely excited and happy. I haven’t felt this way in a while.”
United will have the chance to finalize his deal on a permanent basis at the end of the season.
