A Friday night Twitter transfer rumour frenzy is picking up steam. This is the way of things but particularly so on international weeks when the digital cottage industries built around big clubs is extra desperate for something, anything to feed on.
Eight times zones behind, the man whose name and face is all over timelines strolls through a Los Angels hotel lobby, past a phalanx of hyper-online teenage gymnasts with accompanying coaches at check-in and ambles up a staircase. Jonathan David is not in a hurry.
The 25-year-old Canada and Lille striker is one of the game’s most coveted free agents. These latest rumors begin in France, and suggest Manchester United have moved ahead in the race but concrete negotiations are happening with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur too. A quick sweep of just the past few weeks would suggest the number of elite clubs chasing him to be north of 20.
David smiles, says a soft hello and sits in to a quiet corner. For the next 30-odd minutes his phone doesn’t buzz or blink once. He’s stayed steadfast and adamant that his agents and advisors are handling what comes next. With encouragement, he’ll engage on which leagues may be the best fit but that’s about it. Unlike the klaxon emoji/all-caps-breaking merchants, he is very much in international week mindset – and coming to terms with the night before.
“The body is recovered. The mind, not completely,” David tells the Guardian. “It’s a game where you have a chance to go to a final and a chance to win a trophy. Obviously, for the mind it’s difficult.”
The Canadian men’s 25-year search for any footballing prize goes on after Mexico and a slice of VAR madness did for Jesse Marsch’s side on Thursday. They’d arrived in California not dreaming but believing the Nations League would be theirs, a piece of silver to underline the regeneration under the coach ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
Instead, it’s a third-place playoff, normally a pejorative term to players’ ears. There’s more than consolation on the line Sunday though. After the Americans sleepwalked their way to an upset at the hands of Panama, many now get the clash they wanted in these fraught geopolitical times across North America. Just not in the expected time-slot. An iron curtain-raiser, anyone?
David, who always carries himself quietly, doesn’t echo a team-mate like Alistair Johnston or his coach in biting back at Donald Trump’s 51st state threats. But the opportunity to repeat his heroics of September, when he scored and assisted in Canada’s first victory on US soil in 57 years, is a welcome one.
“I think you want to be a difference maker in the biggest games, rivalry games. It’s something that makes you happy, obviously, and when you help the team, it’s even better,” he says. “It’s games like this that you want to impose yourself, you want to leave a footprint.”
David’s left his mark across the Marsch revolution. Of the 12 Canadian goals under the American, he’s scored five and assisted four. For club and country he has 25 in 41 this season, saving his best for the biggest stage with seven Champions League goals, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Atletico, Juventus, and Dortmund defenses among his victims.
While the same level of respect hasn’t been extended to all Canadian teammates, American pundits have, for years, labelled David the continent’s best frontman. His relentless effectiveness sits in stark contrast to a US team that’s struggled to find its reliable focal point.
“For sure, if people say I’m the best in Concacaf it makes me proud. It must mean I’m doing something right. It doesn’t give me no extra motivation to show the US something,” he says. “Maybe they’ve been lacking that in the last couple of years, a striker that scores just consistently. But I think in the years to come they’ll have that.”
Outside of rising trade-war temperatures, Sunday pits two teams suddenly desperate for a win against one another. Canada were again fitful in attack against Mexico. Getting the absolute best out of David remains a work in progress for Marsch. The Brooklyn-born, Port-au-Prince then Ottawa-raised attacker can mould into many environments. Lille has been something of a footballing university, broadening his skillset across myriad systems. From partnering a target man like Burak Yilmaz to playing alone in front of wide threats and as a space invader ahead of deeper playmakers, he’s done it all.
“First, it’s a very good team in the league, one that’s always fighting for [trophies]. Also, it’s a team that always allows me to play, year after year and to be consistent in my minutes. Not having to be on the bench or having to come in for two games, [then] not playing two games,” says David who has scored 107 goals in 224 games in Lille.
“Throughout my five years, I had to play with different guys all the time, having to adapt to their style of play. What I have to do to get the ball from them, if it’s running deep, coming short, combining then going again … it’s been an adaptation for me every year. It allows me to get more out of my game, to run my game up a little bit more, not just be one-dimensional.”
His goal at Anfield in January was a little instinctive but learned too. Instead of rushing towards the front post he took a breath, a step back and was in the perfect place to capitalise on a deflection. A childhood Barcelona fan, he says La Liga may suit his game more but English football has appeal.
“For me, watching the Premier League, the biggest difference it’s just the intensity,” he says. “I think physicality is pretty much the same [as Ligue 1]. But the intensity, the game is always at a high-end tempo, always 100% back and forth, fast and full for 90 minutes, compared to the French league.”
But the English weather? “To be fair, it’s not, much different than Lille!” David smiles. “They always compare Lille to London. So for me, it wouldn’t be a big change.”