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Next in line
Every season a batch of young and exciting players breaks through in the Champions League – and FedEx has been speaking to three on their way to the top. Here Jonathan David describes how he got this far, followed by the origin stories of two other stars in the making
WORDS Ian Holyman | PORTRAITS Scott Groult
Interview
This was my dream since I was young. Second game of the season, I’m on the bench at home and we’re losing. There are ten minutes to go and the coach decides to put me on. I don’t even think, ‘I have to try and score a goal.’ I just think, ‘Let me just go out there and try to have fun.’ Fortunately for me there was a cross, the ball came back to me and I just finished – it went in. At that moment I didn’t know what I was thinking; it was pure joy. I was just running around happy. I didn’t even realise what I had actually done. But I think it was the beginning of something really big.”
Jonathan David is looking back on his first game in Europe. His side, KRC Gent, were at home to Zulte Waregem on 4 August 2018, and he had just scored the 90th-minute equaliser to earn them a point. From the streets of Port-au-Prince via Ottawa to Genk, this kid was going places. Fast. His next stop was LOSC Lille – and a first shot at the Champions League last season. Another childhood dream realised.
“The Champions League was just about watching it on TV – watching it at home with friends or my dad. Watching any game possible. The goal Ronaldinho scored [in 2004] against AC Milan, when he cut the ball with his right foot and finished with his left, and took his shirt off and celebrated. It’s something that comes to mind every time I think about the Champions League.”
David also stored away information for future reference by “watching a little bit of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o. Just those quick finishes – if it’s with the toe, the outside of the foot. The way Thierry Henry dropped off, dribbled with the ball, took on players. It’s watching the little details of their game, something you can take and put into yours.”
All that research paid off last season. David grasped his chance on the big stage, scoring three times in Group G – all in victories, against Sevilla, Wolfsburg and Salzburg – to help Lille reach the knockouts (in top spot, no less) for the first time in their history. “During the anthem you can just take in the atmosphere,” he says. “You feel it’s not regular, it’s a different game. It gives you goosebumps and makes you realise that you’re at the top of the game right now. I will never forget that feeling, especially as they were three important goals. The fact they helped us win three games makes them even more special.”
That last word is befitting of the 22-year-old himself. His route to the top has been exceptional, even by the itinerant standards of the modern footballer. He is an amalgamation of different worlds, a cultural chameleon who was born in Brooklyn and bred in Haiti (where his family are from) then Ottawa, before the big jump to Europe.
David is also atypical in that he didn’t embrace football from an early age – or at least, not the version with the round ball. While he remembers kicking one around on the streets of Haiti, it’s not a habit he initially stuck to. “When I was about six my family decided to move to Canada to try and live a better life,” he explains. “I didn’t really get involved with football when I first arrived; we used to play American football instead. I first got into football when I was ten – my dad decided to put me in a team.”
David scored 13 league goals as LOSC won the title for the first time in a decade in 2021, flourishing under coach Christophe Galtier. The man who has just taken over at Paris Saint-Germain turned his young striker into a goalscoring machine.
“people remember you by the way you are and how you act, not how you play”
David has also been able to transfer his success at club level to the international stage. It’s no surprise that with 21 goals in 32 appearances for Canada, national team coach John Herdman considers his forward to be “an absolute gift. What I like about Jonathan is the fact that he is so grounded. I call him the Iceman. You can see he comes from a solid family who have good values. He is not going to get carried away – and I think that will be the difference for him.”
The Iceman will be hoping for a hot streak in sweltering Qatar come November, when Canada will kick-off against Belgium for their first World Cup appearance in 36 years. David scored five in helping his country qualify this time around and will be keen to score Canada’s first goal at the tournament (the Mexico ’86 run-out saw the team shooting blanks). He’ll have lightning-quick Bayern München star Alphonso Davies looking to provide the ammunition; the full-back burst onto the Champions League scene in 2019/20 and was the first Canadian European Cup winner by the end of that season.
So that’s two Canadians flying the flag in Europe, but David didn’t get swept up by the hype at Gent – and nor did he let his head go down when his goalscoring touch deserted him at LOSC. “It took time to adapt,” he says, reflecting on his 13-game drought at the start of the 2020/21 season. It would have shredded the confidence of many others, particularly when you consider he had been bought for what was then a club-record fee. “It was about putting the work in. So sometimes after training I’d stay and work on my finishing or dribbling. Just different types of things to make sure that when I got to the game, I was sharper and ready. And, obviously, eventually it did pay off.”
David scored 13 league goals as LOSC won the title for the first time in a decade in 2021, flourishing under coach Christophe Galtier. The man who has just taken over at Paris Saint-Germain turned his young striker into a goalscoring machine. “When I arrived I didn’t have that killer mentality,” said David. “The coach helped me by playing me, by repeating that he had faith in me, that I was doing the right things and that they would pay off. If you don’t demand a lot of yourself then nobody is going to demand anything from you. You have to be the one trying to push yourself forward; you cannot rely on anybody else to do that.”
David has been true to his word: last season he kicked on again by scoring 15 league goals – his best return in Ligue 1 – as well as those three in the Champions League. “I always like to work on my shooting technique, on driving with the ball, on being more dangerous with the ball at my feet and taking on defenders. And afterwards, you just have to try and implement it in games.
“You have to be willing to try it in games, to have the guts to see how it goes. If you don’t do it, it’s never going to come off and you’re training for nothing.” Somehow we get the feeling that this guy has plenty to play for.
Jonathan David is looking back on his first game in Europe. His side, KRC Gent, were at home to Zulte Waregem on 4 August 2018, and he had just scored the 90th-minute equaliser to earn them a point. From the streets of Port-au-Prince via Ottawa to Genk, this kid was going places. Fast. His next stop was LOSC Lille – and a first shot at the Champions League last season. Another childhood dream realised.
“The Champions League was just about watching it on TV – watching it at home with friends or my dad. Watching any game possible. The goal Ronaldinho scored [in 2004] against AC Milan, when he cut the ball with his right foot and finished with his left, and took his shirt off and celebrated. It’s something that comes to mind every time I think about the Champions League.”
David also stored away information for future reference by “watching a little bit of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o. Just those quick finishes – if it’s with the toe, the outside of the foot. The way Thierry Henry dropped off, dribbled with the ball, took on players. It’s watching the little details of their game, something you can take and put into yours.”
All that research paid off last season. David grasped his chance on the big stage, scoring three times in Group G – all in victories, against Sevilla, Wolfsburg and Salzburg – to help Lille reach the knockouts (in top spot, no less) for the first time in their history. “During the anthem you can just take in the atmosphere,” he says. “You feel it’s not regular, it’s a different game. It gives you goosebumps and makes you realise that you’re at the top of the game right now. I will never forget that feeling, especially as they were three important goals. The fact they helped us win three games makes them even more special.”
That last word is befitting of the 22-year-old himself. His route to the top has been exceptional, even by the itinerant standards of the modern footballer. He is an amalgamation of different worlds, a cultural chameleon who was born in Brooklyn and bred in Haiti (where his family are from) then Ottawa, before the big jump to Europe.
David is also atypical in that he didn’t embrace football from an early age – or at least, not the version with the round ball. While he remembers kicking one around on the streets of Haiti, it’s not a habit he initially stuck to. “When I was about six my family decided to move to Canada to try and live a better life,” he explains. “I didn’t really get involved with football when I first arrived; we used to play American football instead. I first got into football when I was ten – my dad decided to put me in a team.”
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David scored 13 league goals as LOSC won the title for the first time in a decade in 2021, flourishing under coach Christophe Galtier. The man who has just taken over at Paris Saint-Germain turned his young striker into a goalscoring machine.
“people remember you by the way you are and how you act, not how you play”
David has also been able to transfer his success at club level to the international stage. It’s no surprise that with 21 goals in 32 appearances for Canada, national team coach John Herdman considers his forward to be “an absolute gift. What I like about Jonathan is the fact that he is so grounded. I call him the Iceman. You can see he comes from a solid family who have good values. He is not going to get carried away – and I think that will be the difference for him.”
The Iceman will be hoping for a hot streak in sweltering Qatar come November, when Canada will kick-off against Belgium for their first World Cup appearance in 36 years. David scored five in helping his country qualify this time around and will be keen to score Canada’s first goal at the tournament (the Mexico ’86 run-out saw the team shooting blanks). He’ll have lightning-quick Bayern München star Alphonso Davies looking to provide the ammunition; the full-back burst onto the Champions League scene in 2019/20 and was the first Canadian European Cup winner by the end of that season.
So that’s two Canadians flying the flag in Europe, but David didn’t get swept up by the hype at Gent – and nor did he let his head go down when his goalscoring touch deserted him at LOSC. “It took time to adapt,” he says, reflecting on his 13-game drought at the start of the 2020/21 season. It would have shredded the confidence of many others, particularly when you consider he had been bought for what was then a club-record fee. “It was about putting the work in. So sometimes after training I’d stay and work on my finishing or dribbling. Just different types of things to make sure that when I got to the game, I was sharper and ready. And, obviously, eventually it did pay off.”
David scored 13 league goals as LOSC won the title for the first time in a decade in 2021, flourishing under coach Christophe Galtier. The man who has just taken over at Paris Saint-Germain turned his young striker into a goalscoring machine. “When I arrived I didn’t have that killer mentality,” said David. “The coach helped me by playing me, by repeating that he had faith in me, that I was doing the right things and that they would pay off. If you don’t demand a lot of yourself then nobody is going to demand anything from you. You have to be the one trying to push yourself forward; you cannot rely on anybody else to do that.”
David has been true to his word: last season he kicked on again by scoring 15 league goals – his best return in Ligue 1 – as well as those three in the Champions League. “I always like to work on my shooting technique, on driving with the ball, on being more dangerous with the ball at my feet and taking on defenders. And afterwards, you just have to try and implement it in games.
“You have to be willing to try it in games, to have the guts to see how it goes. If you don’t do it, it’s never going to come off and you’re training for nothing.” Somehow we get the feeling that this guy has plenty to play for.
Jonathan David is looking back on his first game in Europe. His side, KRC Gent, were at home to Zulte Waregem on 4 August 2018, and he had just scored the 90th-minute equaliser to earn them a point. From the streets of Port-au-Prince via Ottawa to Genk, this kid was going places. Fast. His next stop was LOSC Lille – and a first shot at the Champions League last season. Another childhood dream realised.
“The Champions League was just about watching it on TV – watching it at home with friends or my dad. Watching any game possible. The goal Ronaldinho scored [in 2004] against AC Milan, when he cut the ball with his right foot and finished with his left, and took his shirt off and celebrated. It’s something that comes to mind every time I think about the Champions League.”
David also stored away information for future reference by “watching a little bit of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o. Just those quick finishes – if it’s with the toe, the outside of the foot. The way Thierry Henry dropped off, dribbled with the ball, took on players. It’s watching the little details of their game, something you can take and put into yours.”
All that research paid off last season. David grasped his chance on the big stage, scoring three times in Group G – all in victories, against Sevilla, Wolfsburg and Salzburg – to help Lille reach the knockouts (in top spot, no less) for the first time in their history. “During the anthem you can just take in the atmosphere,” he says. “You feel it’s not regular, it’s a different game. It gives you goosebumps and makes you realise that you’re at the top of the game right now. I will never forget that feeling, especially as they were three important goals. The fact they helped us win three games makes them even more special.”
That last word is befitting of the 22-year-old himself. His route to the top has been exceptional, even by the itinerant standards of the modern footballer. He is an amalgamation of different worlds, a cultural chameleon who was born in Brooklyn and bred in Haiti (where his family are from) then Ottawa, before the big jump to Europe.
David is also atypical in that he didn’t embrace football from an early age – or at least, not the version with the round ball. While he remembers kicking one around on the streets of Haiti, it’s not a habit he initially stuck to. “When I was about six my family decided to move to Canada to try and live a better life,” he explains. “I didn’t really get involved with football when I first arrived; we used to play American football instead. I first got into football when I was ten – my dad decided to put me in a team.”
David scored 13 league goals as LOSC won the title for the first time in a decade in 2021, flourishing under coach Christophe Galtier. The man who has just taken over at Paris Saint-Germain turned his young striker into a goalscoring machine.
“people remember you by the way you are and how you act, not how you play”
David has also been able to transfer his success at club level to the international stage. It’s no surprise that with 21 goals in 32 appearances for Canada, national team coach John Herdman considers his forward to be “an absolute gift. What I like about Jonathan is the fact that he is so grounded. I call him the Iceman. You can see he comes from a solid family who have good values. He is not going to get carried away – and I think that will be the difference for him.”
The Iceman will be hoping for a hot streak in sweltering Qatar come November, when Canada will kick-off against Belgium for their first World Cup appearance in 36 years. David scored five in helping his country qualify this time around and will be keen to score Canada’s first goal at the tournament (the Mexico ’86 run-out saw the team shooting blanks). He’ll have lightning-quick Bayern München star Alphonso Davies looking to provide the ammunition; the full-back burst onto the Champions League scene in 2019/20 and was the first Canadian European Cup winner by the end of that season.
So that’s two Canadians flying the flag in Europe, but David didn’t get swept up by the hype at Gent – and nor did he let his head go down when his goalscoring touch deserted him at LOSC. “It took time to adapt,” he says, reflecting on his 13-game drought at the start of the 2020/21 season. It would have shredded the confidence of many others, particularly when you consider he had been bought for what was then a club-record fee. “It was about putting the work in. So sometimes after training I’d stay and work on my finishing or dribbling. Just different types of things to make sure that when I got to the game, I was sharper and ready. And, obviously, eventually it did pay off.”
David scored 13 league goals as LOSC won the title for the first time in a decade in 2021, flourishing under coach Christophe Galtier. The man who has just taken over at Paris Saint-Germain turned his young striker into a goalscoring machine. “When I arrived I didn’t have that killer mentality,” said David. “The coach helped me by playing me, by repeating that he had faith in me, that I was doing the right things and that they would pay off. If you don’t demand a lot of yourself then nobody is going to demand anything from you. You have to be the one trying to push yourself forward; you cannot rely on anybody else to do that.”
David has been true to his word: last season he kicked on again by scoring 15 league goals – his best return in Ligue 1 – as well as those three in the Champions League. “I always like to work on my shooting technique, on driving with the ball, on being more dangerous with the ball at my feet and taking on defenders. And afterwards, you just have to try and implement it in games.
“You have to be willing to try it in games, to have the guts to see how it goes. If you don’t do it, it’s never going to come off and you’re training for nothing.” Somehow we get the feeling that this guy has plenty to play for.
