When he was 16 years old, Jonathan David was playing in the Ottawa Cup, a tournament for
amateur men’s sides from local soccer associations that included the best university players
in the region.
David’s Ottawa Internationals had just beaten Gloucester Celtic and the teenager had scored
in the final. As the players filed past each other for the post-game handshake, Jay Da
Costa, the long-time technical director of the Ottawa Gloucester Hornets soccer association,
watched on as the older players, many of whom had been unaware of David, congratulated him
on his performance.
“You’re way too good to be here,” they told him.
Those players were right: David was too good. Now 20 years old, he’s just completed a
30m Euro move from Belgium’s Gent to Ligue 1’s Lille, becoming the centrepiece of the
French side’s attempts to requalify for the Champions League.
It’s been quite a journey: from amateur football to becoming the most expensive Canadian
player in history.
And it’s quite a story, too.
Back in 2016, Jay Da Costa was impressed with David, but still had reservations.
“I wouldn’t have bet my mortgage that he was going to go as far as he has right
now,” he remembers.
Few would have. David’s path to Europe was unconventional, and he only arrived in France
by betting on himself. Born in the United States before his family moved to Haiti when
he was three months old, David and his parents emigrated to Canada when he was six. He joined
the Ottawa Gloucester Hornets when he was 11, after playing local house-league soccer.
He was a raw talent, with quickness, an accomplished first touch and the capacity to overpower
defenders. All elements key to his game today.
His coaches remember players around him only wanting to show off their skills. David was
no different at first, until he started working with Hanny El-Magraby, the Hornets coach who
would stay with him for the rest of his time in Ottawa, who remembers an unusually pliable
talent.
“That’s what gave him an edge: you could teach him something and he’d absorb it right
away,” says El-Magraby.
For the next five seasons, as David developed both his tactical acumen and his finishing
ability, goals became the norm. When he started playing on the club’s U-15 and U-16 teams
in the same season, as well as Ontario provincial teams, he also began to separate from the
pack and draw attention.
There was interest from Canada’s three MLS sides: the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Montreal
Impact and Toronto FC. They wanted him in their academy setups
It left him with a decision to make. First-team minutes are scarce for academy players at
Canadian professional clubs and MLS sides also spend heavily on foreign attacking players.
David wanted to take a direct route to Europe, while Canadian clubs could only offer one
with stopovers.
So he stayed with El-Magraby in Ottawa, deciding also to finish high school.
To ensure he would achieve his goal of playing in Europe, El-Magraby doubled down. He didn’t
have the resources of an MLS academy, but that didn’t restrict him from placing lofty
expectations on David and his teammates.
El-Magraby wanted David to consider how to eat, hydrate and sleep properly, and how much
time he spent with his friends versus alone with the ball.
It was deeply impactful. “He’s the one who really got me to where I am today,”
remembered David in a 2018 interview. “He helped me a lot. Even outside of soccer, he
was telling me just how to be a better man in life.”
By the time he was 17, David had represented Canada at the 2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship,
scoring two goals. His agent organized trials in Europe: an unsuccessful, brief spell at
VfB Stuttgart and six weeks at Red Bull Salzburg, who had interest in signing him. Toronto FC
also offered David a professional contract, but he continued to resist the easy path,
gambling on himself.
The last stop on his European tour was Gent. Still 17, David travelled back and forth between
Ottawa to Belgium while on trial and, in January 2018, his perseverance was rewarded. On turning
18 and finally becoming eligible for a professional contract in Europe, he signed for Gent and
finally had a home on football’s mainland.
He would score on his professional debut, too, rescuing a 1-1 draw in stoppage time
against Zulte Waregem. Three more appearances would yield another 4 goals, a new contract,
and – by the end of his first professional season – 14 goals in all competitions.
By the time of his second season, interest was already building. Arsenal, Manchester
United, Leeds, Brighton & Hove, Crystal Palace and Borussia Monchengladbach were all paying
attention, even more so after David produced a further 23 goals in all competitions and
finished a truncated Belgian season as the league’s joint highest scorer.
The secret was out; David was an exciting
part of the game’s future. But it was the opportunity to start in his favoured position
as a striker every week that swung the balance, as did the opportunity to play for a side
with a rich history of developing young players.
And Lille is very much that club: Yohan Cabaye started his career there, so did Lucas Digne
and Eden Hazard. Franck Ribery was also briefly a member of the Lille academy, while – in
the present day - Jonathan Ikone, Jonathan Bamba and Renato Sanches are among the best
young players in the division.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I knew I could keep getting better, could keep playing,”David
says. “Canada has a lot of talent - maybe we just don’t have the exposure yet?”
With Alphonso Davies now a European champion at Bayern Munich and with David’s rapid
trajectory continuing, that seems likely to change.