So, I have a godson who just turned 12 this year. Stay with me, it’s relevant. His father and I are both Canadian soccer fans and Azzurri supporters. (He’s a Milanista for the record, so I guess that makes us both gluttons for punishment.)
One way we refer to the lengthy amount of time that Italy have been out wandering in the World Cup wilderness is by noting that the last time they played an official game in the tournament my godson was just a few days shy of turning 4 months old. Now, if you’d told me then that that Brazil 2014 was the last World Cup I’d see Italy qualify for, and that 12 years later my godson would see Canada have more success at the tournament than Italy, and that he would not have seen Italy qualify even once? I would have looked at you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears.
And yet here we are, in this sometimes-dumbfounding timeline.
So, when I saw that Juventus had signed Jonathan David in their latest attempt at revitalizing the attacking department, I was filled with cautious optimism. It had the makings of a great story for us in the land of maple syrup and the metric system (sometimes) — a rising star of our up-and-coming soccer nation making the jump to a stumbling Italian juggernaut to help them regain their footing as an unstoppable force. Naturally, I was filled with pride at the news, but also a little trepidation: Would he be able to lead the line and be a reference point for i Bianconeri like he had been for les Rouges?
The promise was definitely evident in his past work. David was one of the more prolific attackers in Europe, providing 28, 23 and 21 goal contributions in the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 seasons, respectively. That was good enough for 14th, 31st, and 43rd in Europe’s top 5 leagues for those years, according to transfermarkt.com. He was a top scorer for the Canadian men’s national team and known for his mental fortitude. There seemed to be plenty of upside and more than one reason to believe he’d be a success.
One way we refer to the lengthy amount of time that Italy have been out wandering in the World Cup wilderness is by noting that the last time they played an official game in the tournament my godson was just a few days shy of turning 4 months old. Now, if you’d told me then that that Brazil 2014 was the last World Cup I’d see Italy qualify for, and that 12 years later my godson would see Canada have more success at the tournament than Italy, and that he would not have seen Italy qualify even once? I would have looked at you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears.
And yet here we are, in this sometimes-dumbfounding timeline.
So, when I saw that Juventus had signed Jonathan David in their latest attempt at revitalizing the attacking department, I was filled with cautious optimism. It had the makings of a great story for us in the land of maple syrup and the metric system (sometimes) — a rising star of our up-and-coming soccer nation making the jump to a stumbling Italian juggernaut to help them regain their footing as an unstoppable force. Naturally, I was filled with pride at the news, but also a little trepidation: Would he be able to lead the line and be a reference point for i Bianconeri like he had been for les Rouges?
The promise was definitely evident in his past work. David was one of the more prolific attackers in Europe, providing 28, 23 and 21 goal contributions in the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 seasons, respectively. That was good enough for 14th, 31st, and 43rd in Europe’s top 5 leagues for those years, according to transfermarkt.com. He was a top scorer for the Canadian men’s national team and known for his mental fortitude. There seemed to be plenty of upside and more than one reason to believe he’d be a success.
2 days ago
