David completes move to Lille
Canadian forward Jonathan David has completed his record-breaking transfer to Lille on a deal that runs through 2025.
The French club, whose full name is Lille Olympique Sporting Club, unveiled its new signing via a video showing off a highlight reel of his goals. Another video showed the 20year-old parading around the team’s Stade Pierre-Mauroy with a Canadian flag.
David, voted Canada’s player of the year in 2019, arrives from KAA Gent in the Belgian league where he tied for leading scorer with 18 goals this season.
Lille said David, with 48 goals and 20 assists in 95 games in all competitions in his first two pro seasons, “has lit up the playing fields” since his arrival in Belgium in 2018.
“We are very proud today to welcome Jonathan David, a great talent who has already demonstrated at his young age all his potential and his many qualities within the Belgian championship,” Lille CEO Marc Ingla said in a statement Tuesday.
“He is a player with not only great physical and technical abilities, but also mental qualities which make him particularly alert, agile and decisive.”
The transfer is a Canadian-record transfer fee of 30 million euros ($46.8 million), according to a source not authorized to speak on the record.
The previous Canadian record transfer was Alphonso Davies’ move to Bayern Munich from the Vancouver Whitecaps. That July 2018 deal involved a fixed transfer fee and additional compensation that could total more than $29.25 million.
David will help fill the void left at Lille by the July 31 departure of Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen to Italy’s Napoli for a reported 70 million euros ($109.3 million) plus another 10 million euros ($15.6 million) in bonuses.
“This is a very good team with great players,” David said in a statement. “I want to play and to progress and I think that this is the perfect place. I’m a player who knows his place on the pitch. I love to play to my qualities — notably with speed and technique.”
Lille (15-9-4) was fourth in France’s top-tier Ligue 1 when the season was put on hold due to the global pandemic. England’s Leeds United and Arsenal were also reportedly interested in the young Canadian.