Keinan Davis interview: From non-League to Serie A via Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest

New York Times

3 days ago

Keinan Davis drove from the north of England downwards.
It was like a pursuit from a Top Gear special or a film of some sort of destination-led quest and race against time.
Accompanied by his agent, Davis had meetings with three clubs on the same day. He started in Hull before heading 115 miles south to another and then, for the final conclave, back in the car for a further hour.
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All of the suitors were in the Championship, while there had been further discussions with other teams in the same league, notwithstanding those he had met back on that midweek day almost two years ago.
His parent club, Aston Villa, had made clear Davis could leave, provided the asking price of £2million plus add-ons was met. Hull City was the first meeting and the most advanced.
'The next one was St George's Park,' Davis tells The Athletic. 'The third one was at their training ground around the Midlands. From morning until night, we were just on the road.'
Davis' journey south embodied the well-worn transfer cliche of exploring his options. If he was going to leave Villa permanently, he was keen to avoid what he felt was a rushed process involving his loan to Watford a season earlier.
'I need to know that if I'm going somewhere, they want me,' Davis says. 'All the lines weren't clear when I moved to Watford.'
If the 27-year-old thought he was keeping all options open during those tours between clubs, he had not pondered moving abroad.
'Initially I said no to coming to Udinese because I was just thinking England,' he says. 'I know Serie A, but I didn't watch it. I was tunnel-visioned to stay in England. But I talked to a few people whose words mean a lot to me. One of them was my coach from Biggleswade FC, the team I joined before Villa, called Dave Northfield.
'He couldn't believe I wasn't going to go. He said, 'When you were at Biggleswade, I never thought you'd have the chance to play at the San Siro. You've played in a Championship before, been promoted twice, you're at a good age — go out there and see how it goes'.'
The forward is speaking from his hotel room in Austria, following gruelling double training sessions in preparation for his third season at Udinese.
He moved to Udine, north-east Italy, with his girlfriend and daughter. The quiet way of life suits him, able to focus squarely on being a footballer — a job, he admits, that still feels like a 'miracle'.
Davis joined Villa aged 17. His story is an unlikely one, having been released from Stevenage's academy, his hometown club, before being picked up by Northfield at Biggleswade, who playing in the seventh tier of the English system.
'I was never meant to break through at Villa,' he smiles. 'I came into the academy late and was playing with guys who had been there since seven or eight. Because of that, I always felt like an outsider.
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'To go from Biggleswade to Aston Villa at 17 doesn't happen every day, you know? I always had an underdog mentality to get as much out of football as I could. I overextended what I thought I could do at Villa. I didn't think I would achieve just moving into the first-team dressing room. In my mind, it was a miracle.
'I got to stay with the first team, playing consecutive years in the Premier League and being involved, but I never felt a mainstay due to playing time. I knew there'd be a point where I'd have to go. Before I left, I was trying to leave on loan and would ask Dean Smith, the manager at the time, if I could, but he wanted me around.'
Davis made 86 appearances across eight years. Towards the end and growing old enough to move beyond being viewed an academy graduate, he was stuck in a holding pattern. He wanted to play more but having felt, in his mind, he had overachieved, moving away represented a risk.
'I knew the time was coming when I needed to go and play, because I was always second-choice striker,' he says. 'I was on a good contract, but not playing.
'The question was, do you want to go out and stamp your name and be your own player? I couldn't be at Villa and allow them to carry me throughout my career. I lived in Birmingham for a long time and it's my second home, but I knew the bigger picture.'
The former England youth international speaks fondly about the team that launched him into the full-time game. He credits the 'remarkable' transformation under Unai Emery, comparing this era to the one he joined, when they were relegated from the Premier League in his first season. Davis notes the broader recognition they are receiving from overseas and credits them in his development, even if his true breakout came during a short, though promotion-winning, six months at Nottingham Forest in 2022.
'I'm quite fast, powerful — long distance running isn't really my game,' Davis says. 'I'm more of a transitional striker. I can defend, but when it's time to go, I want to go, I want to attack the goal as fast as possible. That's the way Forest played and that suited me brilliantly.'
Davis scored five goals in 15 games, contributing two assists and starting Forest's 1-0 play-off final victory against Huddersfield Town.
'People at Villa and Forest tell me different things about why I didn't join permanently… I don't know,' he shrugs, when asked whether Villa's reported £15m asking price proved prohibitive.
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'The next season I went to Watford and the difference compared to Forest was that not everyone was in the same boat. A change of managers changes a lot of stuff. A lot of players couldn't quite speak English, and us who are English, couldn't speak Spanish or French. So there were so many things that were not connecting.'
Although the momentum Davis had gathered was stymied, it did not stop him from joining Udinese, the club owned by the Pozzo family, who run Watford.
Davis arrived in September 2023 to the same sense of transience as Watford. A revolving door of head coaches ensued, including World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, as Udinese narrowly survived relegation by two points.
Frustratingly, Davis could contribute little in the early months, hampered by a recurring calf injury and then, during his recovery, a hamstring strain. It was not until the new year that the striker made his debut.
'What you want to do straight away is play well so you just get that immediate respect from your team-mates,' he says. 'It was back-to-back-to-back injuries and it took a long time to get back to how I was. It was very hard mentally.'
If Davis wished for dressing-room respect, it was duly given in abundance on the final day. He scored his first goal in a 1-0 away win against Frosinone, in turn securing survival.
Eight appearances in his first season were bettered by 23 in the next. Injuries, however, shaped form and opportunity once more.
'In my second season, I got injured for nine weeks at the halfway stage,' Davis says. 'So once I did come back, I waited a couple of weeks to get into the team.'
Davis is now fully fit and readying himself for the first season in Italy that carries the feel of a properly fresh start. Maybe it is par for the course that a young man from Stevenage who has worked his way up from Biggleswade to Villa will encounter forks in the road.
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'Fitness is the foundation,' he says. 'Without fitness and being available, you can't have any goals. When I was younger, I wanted to play in the Premier League. I supported Arsenal, so I wanted to play for them. But as I got older, I just wanted to play football.
'The Premier League is a lot of people's goals. But mine's not like that. I just want to play well and to see where I go from there.'