Jonathan David reborn at the World Cup with Canada after the difficult months at Juve

Jonathan David is like a smartphone: it has a built-in compass. Those who have criticized him for nine months – with good reasons, of course – look at the first of his three goals against Qatar. Buchanan kicks, the ball rears up and JD spins on its axis, then volleys. Frankly, a great goal: a 360 with the ball. David is the man of the moment at the World Cup and no, it wasn’t predictable. At Juve, for a season, he didn’t get much of it: 6 goals in the league, 2 in the Champions League, that’s it. At the World Cup, in his first match, he missed a goal the size of a maple and ended up on social media for an (awkward) attempt to play the ball off the ground with his head. He seemed to be a prisoner of an infinite slide, but instead the 6-0 against Qatar opened up a world for him.

MARSCH AND PAOLO ROSSI

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Jesse must be given what is Jesse’s. Marsch, Canada’s coach, put on his toga between the first and second matches. “Jonathan hasn’t stopped scoring – he said -. Make yourselves comfortable and prepare. In big games, we want him to score and he will score… and when he scores, he won’t stop.” On the confidence scale, we are at the Bearzot-Rossi ’82 level. And speaking of Paolo Rossi, Jonathan became the first Juve player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup since Pablito’s three goals against Brazil at Sarriá. 44 years have passed.

POOR KONE

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Of course, what a moment, what a day. David celebrated three times, went to take a penalty which the VAR then took away and he cried, but not with joy. When Ismael Koné’s leg bent in that unnatural way, JD seemed to be one of the most affected. There are images in which he holds his face with his shirt and appears to be crying. In life, after all, he has experienced complex moments and in 2019 he lost his mother, Rose, to whom he dedicated a celebration when he was playing at Lille: he passed her a flower on the sidelines, kissed it and raised it to the sky. “This is for you.”

DAVID AND JUVE

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On the pitch, more prosaically, with David it is almost always a question of goals. During the difficult months at Juve, a statistic was circulating: Jonathan had scored over 180 goals before arriving in Turin, the second player in the world born in the 2000s in the lifetime scorers ranking. The first, the blond giant: Erling Haaland. At 26, David is Canada’s all-time top scorer, even though before this breakthrough against Qatar he had only scored two, both from penalties, in his last 10 games. And the World Cup is beautiful for this reason, because suddenly, on a summer night, it seems to you that everything in life is beautiful, even if until yesterday you were under a train. Maybe it depends on how much the people around you believe in you. Luciano Spalletti: “When you throw the ball at him, it becomes a prison for Jonathan. He is more of a clean player, of a well-organized and thought-out ball.” Jesse Marsch: “Jonathan is the smartest player I have ever coached.” There’s a bit of a difference, come on.