Canada forward Jonathan David stole the show with a hat-trick in his team’s 6-0 win over Qatar in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Group B clash in Vancouver on Thursday.
By doing so, the 26-year-old joined an elite list of players who have scored hat-tricks in the FIFA World Cup, with Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Brazilian legend Pelé, and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo among those who have done so in the prestigious tournament.
After Cyle Larin gave the hosts a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute, Jonathan David doubled that with an excellent right-footed volley past the Qatari goalkeeper.
Then, in the 48th minute, he tripled Canada’s lead as he capitalised on a loose ball in front of the net after a shot ricocheted off the crossbar. He completed his hat-trick in the 93rd minute of the match with an accurate left-footed finish to seal the game 6-0.
Who is Jonathan David?
Jonathan David was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 14 January 2000 to Haitian parents. When David was an infant, he and his parents moved to Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti, before immigrating to Ottawa, Canada, when he was six years old.
However, David did not take the Major League Soccer (MLS) path in the United States. Instead, he developed his footballing skills through local community leagues in the Ottawa region and began playing for the recreational football club, the Gloucester Dragons Soccer Club.
A year later, he transitioned to playing professional football for the Ottawa Gloucester SC Hornets, where he played till 2015. He had an excellent record at the Hornets, scoring 70 goals in just 41 matches at the U-14 and U-15 levels. In 2016, he switched to Ottawa Internationals SC, a not-for-profit football club, to further improve his footballing skills.
While growing up, David never really wanted to play in Major League Soccer, but he expressed his desire to play football in Europe. In 2018, shortly after he turned 18, he signed his first professional contract with Belgian top-flight side AAA Gent.
This was after he had failed to pass the trials at other European clubs like FC Salzburg and VfB Stuttgart. He made 83 appearances for Gent between 2018 and 2020, scoring 37 goals and providing 15 assists.
The 2019-20 season was his breakout year. Despite the Belgian Pro League ending abruptly due to the coronavirus pandemic, he still finished as the league’s joint top goal-scorer and won the Golden Boot with 18 goals from 27 matches.
Jonathan David’s move to Lille, and then to Juventus
This led the youngster to eventually secure a move to French outfit Lille for a reported fee of €27 million. That made him the most expensive Canadian player at the time.
He went on to make 232 appearances for Lille and scored 109 goals. He was part of the Lille side that won the Ligue 1 title in 2020-21, scoring 13 goals and assisting twice. His best individual season at Lille came in 2022-23, when he scored 24 goals in 37 matches in Ligue 1.
In 2025, Italian Serie A giants Juventus signed him on a free transfer from Lille, and he has scored eight goals in 46 games so far. He made his senior Canada debut on 9 September, 2018 in a CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying against the US Virgin Islands, and scored two goals in Canada’s 8-0 win. So far, he has played 79 matches for Canada and has scored 42 goals.
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