In Liverpool on Tuesday night, the contract situations of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will hang in the Anfield sky – but there will be one more high-profile soon-to-be-out-of-contract figure looking to impress.
Jonathan David may already be in the shop window but a big performance for Lille against the Reds in the Champions League will get everyone talking about him.
As this window has shown, a centre forward is one of the most difficult positions to buy a player, but this is a striker in his prime years, entering the final six months of his career – and in the form of his career.
The last calendar year was an exceptional one for the Canadian striker, with only three players – Salah, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe – getting more goals and assists than David, who turned 25 on January 14.
Averaging a goal involvement every 86 minutes, David possesses an obsession for getting the ball in the back of the net. It is his main attribute, according to one of his former bosses.
“Since I’ve been a coach, and I’ve been one since 2008, he’s the player who has impressed me the most. He’s incredible,” former Lille manager Jocelyn Gourvennec told Sky Sports.
“He’s always focused on his job, on his game, scoring goals. Nobody can disturb that. He’s always focused, very quiet, very concentrated.
“He likes football, he loves to train.” That was evident during Gourvennec’s season in charge of reigning French champions Lille in the 2021-22 campaign.
David was the talisman in the team, with 22 goals that season. But, despite his status, he refused to take a day off.
David has scored four goals in the Champions League so far this season
A day after playing 90 minutes of a Ligue 1 game that term, the striker was told to undergo a recovery session with only players who were on the bench or not involved in the match due to train.
But there was David with his boots, on the training field, ready to go. The reason? A desire to score.
“He turned up and said: ‘I want to train’,” Gourvennec added.
“I let the staff speak with him and there was some trouble as he was not agreeing with the decision that he played 90 minutes yesterday so he couldn’t train that morning.
“It was because in four days, we had another game. And he said: ‘I don’t understand it. I’m fit, I was fit yesterday. And I have to train because I have to score goals’. It’s incredible for a coach to have a player like that.”
Since Gourvennec’s season at Lille working with David, the Canadian forward has struck 26 goals in each of his two full seasons with Lille.
With 17 goals in 30 games so far this term, he is likely to reach, or even surpass, that tally again.
Most of his goals come from inside the penalty area – the area of the pitch where he thrives. And there is a sense of right place, right time with David, especially on the biggest stage.
A lot of David’s goals come from shots in the penalty area
His four Champions League goals have come against Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Real Madrid.
“He’s very good in front of the goal in the penalty area to keep calm and to place it, not always going for power,” said Gourvennec about David’s finishing skills.
“The goals from a metre out at the back post. Yes, even I can score them it’s easy. But the case with Jonathan is he’s always alone in these situations – then the ball gets to him like a magnet. In the penalty area, he always finds those spaces. It’s like a science of the game.”
But scoring goals is not the only facet of David’s game. Three seasons ago, the forward failed to register a single assist in the 2021-22 campaign.
But since then, he has registered 20 assists in the last two-and-a-half seasons.
“He is always playing for the team, he likes to score but he’s always happy when he can give an assist for a team-mate,” Gourvennec said.
“He hits 12 kilometres every game, those numbers are like a midfielder. He has high-intensity efforts, always.
“Every three or four days, when you have to play two games in a week, it’s not a problem for him because he has a high level of recovery.”
David ranked fourth for goal involvements in 2024
Judging by all these skills – and the goals that have followed – it beggars belief why David has not been picked up sooner.
After all, his talents have been well-documented for some time. It has been four years since he guided Lille to the Ligue 1 title in 2021.
But there is interest from all across Europe. At least four Premier League clubs are understood to be keen on a 2025 move for the striker, with Chelsea and West Ham’s interest last summer made public.
“He didn’t want to stay this long, but the club didn’t open the door for him,” added Gourvennec. “Now he’s in a good position where he can make his choice.
“The club didn’t want him to leave, it was not his decision but he respected that and the other players in the team.”
And when David heads to Anfield on Tuesday night, it may not be his last action in a Premier League stadium. “I don’t know if I can find myself anywhere other than the Premier League,” said the striker in 2022.
English crowds may have to get used to David taking on defences.
