What has always felt like the missing piece for the United States men’s national team could have been resolved long ago.
The lack of a world-class striker has historically acted as the ultimate glass ceiling for the USMNT on the global stage.
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This was exposed during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when the pool of strikers that included Josh Sargent and Timothy Weah underwhelmed.
The team’s starting strikers combined for no goals on six shots – of which only one was on target – and an expected goals value of 0.50 over their four World Cup matches, according to OptaJack.
In the early 2000s, U.S. Soccer legend Tab Ramos – infamously elbowed out of the last men’s World Cup on US soil – embarked on a huge recruiting mission.
If it had worked out, it could have changed the course of history for the USMNT.
Could Jonathan David have played for the USMNT?
Born in Brooklyn, New York, David moved to Haiti when he was just three months old, where his parents hail from.
Six-years later, he and his parents immigrated to Ottawa.
David was eligible to represent the United States, Haiti or Canada on the international stage, ultimately choosing the latter.
There, he would go on to rise up through the Canadian ranks, and Octavio Zambrano, a former manager of the international team, had a lot of conversations with the U-17 head coach about a call up to the senior team.
“We needed to lock him in for Canada,” Zambrano told Farhan Devji in 2021. “So, I was really confronted with the idea of just taking him, not on the base of merit, to the Gold Cup.
“Just so I could put a jersey on him and debut him so he couldn’t play for any other team. We all knew that he had roots also in the United States. And it was a tough decision.
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“But I couldn’t bring myself to take a spot from another player.”
“He was the one they were thinking about as a great player to bring into the national team,” Zambrano continued.
Ultimately, David was left off the roster, which is when Ramos – who, at the time was the youth technical director for USMNT – eventually invited David to join the U.S. U-20 national team the following year.
But David respectfully declined, citing that his heart was always set on Canada.
Davis’ domestic record proves what they missed out on
In his first appearance for Canada, David contributed two goals and an assist in a 8-0 drubbing of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Moving from Canada to Europe in 2018, he joined Gent’s youth setup where he was quickly promoted to the first team.
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After 37 goals in 83 appearances, LOSC Lille shattered their transfer record, bringing David to France for €30 million.
In his first season, David formed a lethal partnership with Burak Yilmaz, scoring 13 goals in Ligue 1.
This included a legendary match winnera gainst Paris Saint-Germain to secure Lille‘s historic league title.
Over his five years in France, he proved to be an incredibly durable and elite volume scorer, racking up exactly 87 goals in 177 Ligue 1 appearances.
Across all competitions, he left the club as a modern icon with 109 goals, cementing himself as Lille’s top scorer of the 21st century.
After running down his contract in France, David became one of the most coveted free agents in football, ultimately signing a long-term deal with Italian giants Juventus.
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His first season under Luciano Spalletti didn’t quite go to plan, managing just eight goals in 45 appearances across all competitions.
The USMNT, however, has since managed to close the recruitment loop by successfully convincing Ligue 1 breakout star Folarin Balogun to trade England for America, who has already notched two goals in this year’s World Cup on home soil.
They also punched their ticket to the Round of 32 in dominant fashion, winning Group D before they even take to the field for their third, and final, group outing against Türkiye on Thursday, with their likely opponent being Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Meanwhile, David has showed up for Canada on the global stage, having notched a hat trick in their thumping 6-0 victory over Qatar in the Group Stages of the competition, albeit the win was overshadowed by a horrific lower leg injury to midfielder Ismael Kone.
The Canadians are also safely through to the knockout stages, finishing as runners-up behind Switzerland in Group B, with South Africa confirmed as their opponents.
Nonetheless, the miss on David’s pedigree in front of goal could yet become the ultimate historical “what-if” hanging over manager Mauricio Pochettino’s frontline, depending on how each country’s progression in the World Cup goes.
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