Jonathan David scores in Juventus debut as CanMNT forward gets off to dream start at new club - ICYMI
In ICYMI, Alexandre Gangue-Ruzic dives deeper into the individual performances of the CanMNT and CanWNT players playing abroad.
It didn’t take long for Jonathan David to open his Juventus account, as the CanMNT forward scored the winning goal in a 2-0 victory over Parma on his Serie A debut on Sunday.
Making his first competitive appearance for the Italian giants after joining from Lille on a free transfer this summer, David made sure to cap off his debut with a goal, finding the net in the 59th minute of that victory.
After scoring 109 goals in 232 appearances for Lille, it was a great start to his life at a new club for David, showing why Juventus swooped in ahead of several interested onlookers to secure his signature back in July.
Having last won the Scudetto in 2019-2020, there’s pressure for the Turin-based side to add to their record haul of 36 titles in 2025-2026, so this is the exact start they wanted, led by their new striker.
What’s most encouraging, too, is that David didn’t have the best of starts to his debut, either. For 45 minutes, he looked lost at the top of Juventus’s 3-4-2-1 formation, struggling to find any space in and around Parma’s box.
Every time he received the ball, he was either dispossessed or forced to go backwards, as he got an early taste of the sort of stingy defensive play that Serie A is famously known for.
To manager Igor Tudor’s credit, though, he was patient with his new striker, and he was rewarded for it in the end, as David started to grow more and more comfortable as the game went on, putting in an excellent second-half performance. 
David's heatmap from this game (SofaScore)
Not only did he score his goal, but he generated four shots and created five chances despite finishing the match with just 34 touches, as he did a good job of finding the pockets of space that eluded him in the first half. In particular, his hold-up play improved drastically in the second stanza, as he also seemed to have a better understanding of how to link-up with his teammates, which helped him create a few dangerous chances.
Jonathan David game by numbers vs. Parma:
— Max Statman (@emaxstatman) August 24, 2025
▫️100% Dribble completed
▫️2/5 Aerial duels won
▫️2/5 Ground duels won
▫️34 Total touches
▫️— 8 Touches in opp. box
▫️5 Chances created [most]
▫️1 Goal
The account unlocked. pic.twitter.com/UkxTHVSN5O
No doubt, though, that the goal was the crown jewel of his performance. It wasn’t the fanciest of goals, but it’s the sort of marker that David will hope to score a lot of this year, as he did a great job of peeling off his defender before guiding home a low Kenan Yildiz shot from in tight.
Jonathan David's first #SerieA goal! 🇨🇦#JuveParma pic.twitter.com/4WN7XSwST5
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) August 25, 2025
For a Juventus side that might face a steady diet of low blocks if they continue to hold onto possession like they did vs. Parma, keeping 64% of the ball in this match, that’s the exact sort of movement they’ll want to see from their striker.
Yet, for David, it’s a good reminder of what this new chapter can do for him as a player. At a club like Juventus, there will be a lot of pressure on him to find the net in every game, no matter the opponent and state of the match, and that’ll push him to develop his game even further, especially in front of goal.
Already a cerebral striker that does a great job of impacting the game beyond his goals with the work that he does on and off the ball, that next step for him to cement his status as an elite level #9 will be to find that consistency in front of goal week-in and week-out. To his credit, he showed signs of coming close to that in his last three seasons with Lille, scoring 26 goals in all competitions in 2022-2023, 26 goals in 2023-2024 and 25 goals in 2024-2025, but he’ll know that he has another level to hit beyond that. 
With this debut, though, he appears to be on the right track. Given that he’s still developing an understanding of how to play in this new system with new teammates, it’s encouraging to see him step up the way he did in just his first game, not looking out of place.
Heading into the World Cup, the CanMNT will want David to enter that tournament in as strong as form as possible, so they’ll hope this is just the start of what’s to come for David in this newest chapter, especially in the goalscoring department.
If all goes well at his new club, David has the potential to become not just one of the best strikers in the world, but one of the best players, period, showing why Canadians will be pleased to see him already find the back of the net in Serie A.
FOR A FULL UPDATE OF THE PERFORMANCES OF CANADIANS ABROAD, CHECK OUT MITCHELL TIERNEY’S FORM GUIDE.
