The contract situations of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will hang in the air at Liverpool on Tuesday night, but there will be another high-profile figure set to leave soon to impress.
Jonathan David may already be in the shop windows, but Lille’s superb performance against the Reds in the Champions League will have everyone talking about him.
As this window has shown, centre-forward is one of the most difficult positions to buy a player in, but this is a striker in his prime, entering the final six months of his career and in the form of his career.
The past calendar year has been exceptional for the Canadian striker, with only three players – Salah, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe – scoring more goals and assists than David, who turned 25 on January 14.
Averaging a goal every 86 minutes, David has an obsession with putting the ball in the back of the net, according to one of his former managers.
“Since I have been a coach since 2008, he is the player who has impressed me the most. He is incredible,” said former Lille coach Jocelyn Gurvenec. Sky Sports.
“He’s always focused on his job, on his game, on scoring goals. No one can stop him. He’s always focused, very quiet, very focused.
“He likes football, he likes training.” That was evident in Gurvenec’s season in charge of reigning French champions Lille in 2021-22.
David was the team’s talisman, scoring 22 goals that season, but despite his status, he refused the day off.
David scored four goals in the Champions League this season
A day after playing 90 minutes of the Ligue 1 game in that period, the forward was told he would only have to undergo a rehabilitation session with players who were on the bench or missed the match due to training.
But David was ready to go in his shoes, at the stadium. The reason: Desire to score a goal.
“He appeared and said: “I want to train,” Gurvenek added.
“I let the staff talk to him and there were some issues because he didn’t agree with the decision to play 90 minutes yesterday so he couldn’t train that morning.
“It was because we had another game in four days. And he said, “I don’t understand it. I was in shape yesterday. And I have to score goals. It’s unbelievable for a player like that.”
Since Gurvenec has worked at Lille since his season with David, the Canadian forward has scored 26 goals in each of his two full seasons at Lille.
With 17 goals in 30 games this season, he is likely to match or even surpass that mark again.
Most of his goals come from the penalty area, the part of the pitch he thrives in. And with David, there’s a sense of right place, right time, especially on the biggest stage.
Many of David’s goals are scored from kicks in the penalty area
His four Champions League goals came against Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Real Madrid.
“He’s very good in the penalty area in front of goal to keep calm and set it up, not always looking for power,” Gurvenek said of David’s finishing prowess.
“Goals a meter away from the back post. Yes, even I can score them, it’s easy. But with Jonathan, he’s always alone in these situations. The ball comes to him like a magnet, he always finds those areas, it’s like game science.”
But scoring goals isn’t the only aspect of David’s game, with the forward failing to register a single assist in 2021-22.
But since then, he has 20 assists in the last two and a half seasons.
“He always plays for the team, he likes to score goals, but he is always happy when he can assist a teammate,” said Gurvenek.
“He scores 12 kilometers per game, those numbers are like a midfielder, he always puts in a high-intensity effort.
“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 recovery rate.”
David finished fourth in scoring in 2024
Judging by all these skills and the goals that followed, it beggars belief why David wasn’t acquired sooner.
After all, his talents have been well-documented for some time, it’s been four years since he led Lille to the Ligue 1 title in 2021.
But there is interest from across Europe, with at least four Premier League clubs keen to sign the striker in 2025, with interest from Chelsea and West Ham reported last summer.
“He didn’t want to stay this long, but the club didn’t open the door for him,” added Gurvenek. “Now he is in a good position where he can make his choice.
“The club didn’t want him to leave, it wasn’t his decision, but he respected that and the other players in the team.”
And when David heads to Anfield on Tuesday night, it could be his last action at a Premier League stadium. “I don’t know if I could end up anywhere but the Premier League,” said the striker in 2022.
The English crowd may have to get used to defending David.
