How They Get Dressed: Charlie Davies

  Charlie Davies

This is Charlie Davies, a football player from Boston, and a strong fixture in the United States world cup squad prior to the tournament in South Africa.  He plays for F.C. Sochaux, a French team from near the Swiss border.  The club was originally founded by Peugeot factory workers in the nineteen twenties.  On October 13 2009 Charlie was smashed up pretty badly in a car accident in Washington D.C., whilst back there for a world cup qualifying game against Costa Rica.  A 22 year old girl, who was a passenger in the car with him died at the scene.

Scarring from work done to relieve brain swelling

I was sent to France to photograph some of his scars for  ESPN The Magazine’s annual ‘The Body Issue.’  He gave me far more time than was required and, in the day we spent together, he showed no signs of any of the behaviour that we have come to expect from some of our native football players here in England.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Charlie was an out and out gentleman.  For a start, he only had one phone, as opposed to the usual two that most other players I’ve met seem to possess – one for the wife and one for their life, as the saying goes.  And secondly, he seemed positively thrillled that his girlfriend, Nina, who he met in college, spent the whole day with him on the shoot.

Scarring from the repairs to lacerated bladder

At the end of the shoot we had half an hour spare, which just about gave me the time to shoehorn in a quick go at making something for my “How I Get Dressed” series that would allow to Charlie show us that he’s ready to get back out there and start scoring goals  - 28 in 78 appearances prior to the crash.  And what better way to do it than to ask him to put his kit back on.  There was not the time, however, to get him to do a voiceover for me so I’ve gone a bit off piste here and done one myself, so as to explain the story behind the film.

The link to the film is underneath the picture below.

Advertisement