Jonathan David's artistry whetting the appetite of Canadian soccer fans a year out from 2026 World Cup

Chris Jones · CBC Sports

· Posted: Jun 09, 2025 11:12 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

Top strikers are architects. They are builders and engineers. They spot an bare space, and they ideate the astir beauteous mode to capable it. They spot possibility, and they crook it into thing true.

Jonathan David is the top striker successful the past of the Canadian men's program. He's 25 years old, and he's scored much goals than anyone who has travel earlier him. In Saturday's emphatic triumph implicit Ukraine successful Toronto, helium scored 2 more, the 33rd and 34th of his national-team career.

The archetypal was workmanlike, an entity of his tendency and efficiency: close place, close time. 

The 2nd was a masterpiece, a merchandise of his artistry.

On Sunday, David, astatine the commencement of the astir captious twelvemonth of his nonrecreational life, sat down for an exclusive interrogation with CBC astatine the team's downtown hotel. He isn't a towering carnal specimen, a monster masquerading arsenic a man. He's quiescent and contained. When truthful galore of the world's champion strikers are characters, the flamboyant giants of the game, he's astir remarkably unremarkable.

"I'm a calm guy," helium said. "I don't truly spell retired that much. I similar to enactment successful my room, conscionable relaxing."

WATCH | Jonathan David scores twice, Canada downs Ukraine astatine Canadian Shield:

That was earlier helium was asked astir his gorgeous goal, and helium talked astir what it takes to marque thing beautiful. David's imaginativeness is his gift, the crushed helium volition articulation a apical European broadside this summertime aft 5 years astatine Lille of France's Ligue 1. Saturday's objection volition lone amended his prospects. The thought of it made him shine.

"This 1 was…"

He didn't decorativeness his sentence. He stopped to smile, and past helium went backmost to the beginning, with Tajon Buchanan extracurricular the 18-yard box, looking to curl successful a cross.

"I don't cognize precisely wherever Tajon is going to get the ball," helium said successful the contiguous tense, the mode truthful galore athletes bash erstwhile they retrieve their finest moments. "I'm conscionable moving into an country wherever possibly he's going to onshore it."

David knows that each monument has its foundation, which successful his lawsuit means cutting successful beforehand of his defender. He did that, too. He utilized his acquisition and subject to acceptable himself up for a chance, 10 yards successful beforehand of the Ukrainian goal.

He besides took enactment of the goalkeeper's position, shading a small to David's right. David's determination to purpose near was little a thought than an instantaneous calculation. "It's astir instinct," helium said. "This is wherever I person to enactment it."

The hardest portion of the process came next. He knew what helium wanted to do.

Now helium had to bash it.

The aforesaid is existent for his ascendant Canadian side, for everyone progressive successful making adjacent summer's World Cup thing glorious, thing singular. For the archetypal time, Canada, on with the U.S. and Mexico, volition co-host the biggest sporting lawsuit connected Earth.

It's a monolithic undertaking, with each benignant of potential, and each imaginable outcome.

BMO Field, the signifier for David's latest heroics, is simply a operation site, with a operation site's unsmooth assembly of ambition and nerves. Exactly a twelvemonth earlier Canada's men footwear disconnected their World Cup run connected the aforesaid field, 2 of 4 caller videoboards are up. Gates are nether renovation. The abstraction for 17,000 further seats has been cleared but nary of them are successful place.

The imagination is half-built. It will, successful shot and successful life, travel down to the finish.

David ducked nether Buchanan's cleanable delivery, and the shot glanced disconnected the apical of his head. In antithetic circumstances, that interaction mightiness person been a mistake — a brushed effort, an imperfect collision. But David meant to bash what helium did. "The volition was to enactment it connected that side," helium said.

The shot floated toward the apical corner, inches wrong the post. He turned to ticker its flight. The goalkeeper, rooted to his spot, watched it with him.

David hadn't needed to bash thing dramatic. It was capable that helium did the unexpected. The extremity that, a half-second before, had been thing lone helium could see, present belonged to each Canadian shot fan, arsenic if a committedness he'd made to himself had go a prophecy for the remainder of us.

Jonathan David returned to his archetypal thought and finished his sentence.

"Even amended than I imagined," helium said.