BACKGROUND
Not Kylian Mbappe. Not Neymar. And neither does Lionel Messi. If you take a look at the list of goalscorers in the French Ligue 1, there is not a representative of the Parisian star trio at the top. No, Jonathan David from Lille OSC says hello from above.
Even more: the 21-year-old striker is currently as successful as the three PSG stars together. David has scored a whopping eleven goals in 17 league games so far. Mbappe (seven goals), Neymar (three) and Messi (one goal) add up to the same value.
It is the continuation of a surprise story that began with Lille’s championship last season and for David it may end there next summer. After a difficult start, the Canadian experienced a performance explosion in 2021 that has not gone unnoticed by numerous top European clubs.
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Lille striker Jonathan David: PlayStation instead of football and “one sixth” of the space as the key
David was born to Canadian Haitian parents in New York. After living in Haiti as a toddler, he later moved with his family to Ottawa, where David also took his first football steps. But he didn’t really value it at the time.
“I had other priorities,” David once revealed in an interview with Sports/Football Magazine: “I wanted to go out, sleep and play PlayStation with my friends.” As a result, he did not always give everything in training. “What does it bring me to work so hard?”, He explained his point of view at the time.
A coaching lecture later, David realized that he was capable of great things – and immediately knew where he was going. “I only had one goal: to come to Europe,” he emphasized. Accordingly, he only followed European football, while Canadian and American football were left out.
Still, Canadian football gave him a boost in some ways. During the winter months, the teams train in special, tent-like halls. However, they did not have these exclusively. “There were only a handful of them and they were also used by baseball, football and other sports clubs,” said Jay da Costa, technical director of David’s first club, Ottawa Gloucester Hornets, in an interview with First Time Finish: “That made it difficult to get space and time.” And if you did, you only trained on a third of the field, “sometimes even on a sixth”. But it was precisely on this limited space that the players improved their ball control.
In 2018 David’s European dream came true: The attacker moved to Belgium, in the U21 of KAA Gent. There, where a certain Kevin De Bruyne once had his points of contact with the round leather.
34 scorer points, Bayern rumors and sensation champions: David’s rapid rise
In the same year David rose to the pros – and immediately caused a sensation. On his debut in August, David, who had only stepped on the field in the 77th minute, scored in the 95th minute to equalize 1: 1 against Zulte Waregem. Only a week later he marked a double – also after being substituted on in the 70th minute.
Especially in his second and last season in Belgium, David really did well in 2019/20. After 40 games there were a whopping 34 scorer points (23 goals, eleven assists). The interesting thing: David was mainly behind the leaders in the said season. It happened as it had to: It felt like half of Europe was chasing David.
In Germany, David was associated with BVB, FC Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig. If you believe the statements of his advisor Nick Mavromanis, the 24-time Canadian international would have liked to land in Germany’s first floor. “He is ready for the next step and wants to go to the Bundesliga,” said Mavromanis at the time Ruhr news.
He was even attracted from Munich by national team colleague Alphonso Davies, whom David once described as a role model because of his steep career path: “He has a lot of quality. If he came here, he would have no problems playing at this level,” Davies said in March last year As part of a video press conference.
But in the end, as is well known, it was neither the south nor the west of Germany, but with Lille the French north. The OSC David cost 27 million euros in summer 2020, equipped it with a five-year contract and made it the most expensive Ghent export in the club’s history.
There David’s first season reads as furious as his previous career: 13 goals in 37 league games, plus the sensational championship title in front of series champions PSG. He only celebrated his goal debut in November, remained the first ten league games without a goal participation. With the turn of the year the knot burst, among other things he scored in the important and decisive top game on matchday 31 at Parc de Princes to win.
“Lack of tactical consistency”: What David still has to work on
“He’s a fast and strong striker with an imposing build and an ice-cold finish,” praised David Hernandez von GOAL France: “David likes to go deep and is a very versatile player.”
Despite his strong quota and all the hymns of praise, Hernandez still sees room for improvement, especially in the tactical area. “He still lacks real tactical consistency,” he emphasizes. David also tends to “dive into a game” despite having overcome the adjustment difficulties.
For his future, however, this does not seem to be too big a thorn in the side, because many top clubs are currently vying for David.
Liverpool, PSG and € 50m: David and the hottest rumors
According to media reports, Arsenal, Liverpool and PSG should now advertise for the striker.
Most recently, David also triumphed in his first premier class season on the international stage. The Canadian scored twice in the last two Champions League games, giving Lille an ideal starting position for the round of 16 as the first in the table before the final group match. And everything indicates that his future will not lie in Lille beyond the summer.
“Lille’s economic strategy is to sell it for at least EUR 50 million,” explains Hernandez. In addition, David himself wants “more”. Lilles eleventh place in the table and thus a possible missing of the Champions League in the coming year would not necessarily strengthen the position of the club.
“Ideal for the Firmino role”: Where David would fit best
With all this speculation, the question now is, which club should David go to?
“I think the Premier League or the Bundesliga would be an ideal fit for him,” emphasized Hernandez.
Above all, the Reds from Liverpool are a good target: “Due to his variability, he has the necessary profile to assert himself there in a role similar to Roberto Firmino, i.e. as a nine or false nine.”
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