As Jesse Marsch begins his second calendar year in charge of the Canadian men’s national team, one area where his team could take a step forward is, well, at forward.
In Marsch’s 13 matches in charge, Canada scored just 12 goals and have been shut out six times. They did not find the back of the net until the 74th minute of his fourth game in charge.
To be fair, those matches came against the number one, two and seven ranked teams in the world, and the calibre of opposition Canada generally played in 2024 was incredibly high. But that won’t change over the next two years, either, making it paramount that Canada find a way to be a little bit more clinical in front of goal.
News this weekend looks to have given the men’s national team substantial help in this area. On Friday, 23-year-old Promise David filed a one-time switch to change from the Nigerian national team, who he represented at the U-23 level, allowing him to represent Canada.
Then, Canadian soccer fans were greeted with a report from The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke on Monday morning that 21-year-old Bournemouth striker Daniel Jebbison has committed his international future to Les Rouges and will file his switch soon as well. The pair of commitments are an instant injection of talent and depth into the Canadian national team player pool in a position that now features several dynamic options.
Marsch was seen in attendance for Bournemouth’s 1-0 loss to Wolves in English Premier League action last weekend, with Jebbison coming off the bench in the 89th minute. Canada has long been hoping to recruit the 21-year-old striker from Oakville, Ont. — who won the European U-19 Championship with England in 2022.
Jebbison, who at 17 became the youngest player in English Premier League history to score in his first start, has struggled at times to live up to that stunning debut. He missed nearly an entire season in 2023-24 due to a blood clot issue which surely stunted his development.
Following a disappointing loan to Watford in the Championship to start this season, he returned to Bournemouth in January and has hit the ground running, scoring in their two most recent FA Cup fixtures against West Brom and Everton. When at his best, Jebbison has a lot of attributes that will brilliantly complement Marsch’s system. He has good attacking movement, positioning, and composed finishing when he finds himself in good spots around the penalty area.
Jebbison is an involved attacker who is willing to put in the work without the ball to put pressure on defenders. Where working with someone like Marsch can unquestionably benefit him is the timing and positioning of those approaches. But he has all the tools to contribute a lot of goals to the national team, not just now but for many years to come.
Promise David, meanwhile, took a much less travelled path to the national team but is nonetheless just as exciting an addition. Growing up through the Toronto FC and then Vaughan Azzurri academies, he made his professional debut in Malta, before lighting up the Estonian top flight with Nōmme Kalju.
That earned him a move to Union SG in the Belgian top flight, where in his debut season he has thrived. He now has 13 goals in 27 matches in all competitions, including a recent goal against Ajax in the Europa League. He has added five assists to that tally as well, including a pair this past weekend against Anderlecht as USG sit third in the Belgian table.
At six-foot-four-inches, David’s strength comes from his seamless ability to blend his physical attributes with technical ability and tactical excellence. He is great in the air, and is a pure finisher around the area. He is also excellent at making space for himself in the box, be that through his physicality, or with smart and dynamic runs. He combines that with silky ball control, making him incredibly exciting to watch.
Increasingly this season, he is starting to show a good ability for setting up teammates as well, playing some lovely balls through the lines in transition over the past few matches. David has also become Union SG’s penalty taker, and has been excellent from the spot. Especially considering Canada’s history from the penalties, it never hurts to have a few more of those in the system.
With these two high-profile additions to the pool, all of a sudden things get a lot more crowded at number nine for the Canadian men’s national team.
Jonathan David is really the only locked-in starter, and has been the only reliable true striker for Canada since Marsch took over in terms of scoring production. Nine of the twelve goals scored by Canada since Marsch took over involved David with him either scoring or assisting. He is, and will remain, the focal point of Canada’s attack.
Beside him over the past few years has been Cyle Larin, who also won’t be particularly easy to overtake. Despite a lack of goalscoring production under Marsch, with just one goal in twelve matches, Larin’s tactical ability has made him crucial to Canada’s system.
He is still Canada’s second all-time leading scorer, with 30 goals, and always seems to find a way to score in big moments. Not many of those, however, have come off the bench with Larin being far more effective in a starting role.
But especially now with the addition of Promise David and Jebbison, the other options are queuing up behind him. Tani Oluwaseyi has shown promise in his few appearances for Canada. Jacen Russell-Rowe is off to a good start with Columbus Crew, starting and scoring in his first match of the MLS season this past weekend.
Theo Bair has been in better form for Auxerre of late in Ligue 1, Charles-Andreas Brym scored against Feyenoord this past weekend and despite a serious injury Kwasi Poku had an impressive start to life with RWD Molenbeek — who may well be in the Belgian top flight next season. Dieu-Merci Michel, Santiago López, Jules-Anthony Vilsaint and Iké Ugbo are all still in consideration as well, although the latter has never seemed further from call-up contention.
More than anything now, Marsch has competition and an array of options at the position whom he can select based on club form, training camp performance, fit or any array of metrics which he values. He also will now have an array of game-changers which can come off the bench and add different attributes to the team’s attack.
For any national team manager, this is a dream scenario. For Marsch, he now has a short runway to try to evaluate and elevate these players. The first challenge, figuring out who should lead the line in March at the Nations League Finals, then this summer at the Gold Cup.
Of course, for the manager and all of these players, all roads eventually lead to the 2026 World Cup — and now selecting which number nines represent Canada at that competition next year is shaping up to be one of Marsch’s biggest challenges yet.
