USMNT attack could have looked very different with Canadian star if Tab Ramos plea had worked out
What has always felt like the missing piece for USMNT could have been resolved long ago.
The lack of a world-class striker has historically acted as the ultimate glass ceiling for the U.S. on the global stage.
This was exposed during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when the pool of strikers that included Josh Sargent and Timothy Weah underwhelmed.
The team’s starting strikers combined for no goals on six shots (one on target) and an expected goals vale of 0.50 over their four World Cup matches, according to OptaJack.
In the early 2000s, U.S. soccer legend Tab Ramos – infamously elbowed out of the last men’s World Cup on US social – embarked on a recruiting mission, which if it had worked out, could have changed the course of history for USMNT.
Could Jonathan David have played for U.S.
Born in Brooklyn, New York to Haitian parents, Jonathan David moved to Haiti when he was just three months old.
Six-years later, he and his parents immigrated to Ottawa.
David was eligible to represent the U.S., Haiti or Canada on the international stage.
David would go on to rise up through the Canadian ranks, and Octavio Zambrano, a former manager of the international team, had a lot of conversations with the U-17 head coach about a call up to the senior team.
“We needed to lock him in for Canada,” Zambrano told Farhan Devji in 2021.
“So, I was really confronted with the idea of just taking him, not on the base of merit, to the Gold Cup.
“Just so I could put a jersey on him and debut him so he couldn’t play for any other team. We all knew that he had roots also in the United States. And it was a tough decision.
“But I couldn’t bring myself to take a spot from another player.”
So they left him off the roster, and in came Ramos who at the time was the youth technical director for USMNT.
“He was the one they were thinking about as a great player to bring into the national team,” Zambrano continued.
Ramos would, eventually, invite David to join the U.S. U-20 national team the following year, but David respectfully declined, with his heart always set on Canada.
Davis’ domestic record proves what they missed out on
In his first appearance for the Canadian men’s national team, David contributed two goals and an assist in a 8-0 drubbing of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Moving from Canada to Europe in 2018, he joined Gent‘s youth setup where he was quickly promoted to the first team.
After 37 goals in 83 appearances, LOSC Lille shattered their transfer record to bring David to France.
In his first season, David formed a lethal partnership with Burak Yilmaz, scoring 13 Ligue 1 goals.
This included a legendary match winnera gainst Paris Saint-Germain to secure Lille’s historic league title.
Over his five years in France, he proved to be an incredibly durable and elite volume scorer, racking up exactly 87 goals in 177 Ligue 1 appearances.
Across all competitions, he left the club as a modern icon with 109 goals, cementing himself as Lille’s top scorer of the 21st century.
After running down his contract in France, David became one of the most coveted free agents in football, ultimately signing a long-term deal with Italian giants Juventus.
His first season under Luciano Spalletti didn’t quite go to plan, managing just eight goals in 45 appearances across all competitions.
While the USMNT has since managed to close the recruitment loop by successfully convincing Ligue 1 breakout star Folarin Balogun to trade England for America.
The miss on David’s 87-goal pedigree remains the ultimate historical “what-if” hanging over manager Mauricico Pochettino’s frontline.
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