What can Atlético expect from Jonathan David?

Seven points, and still no settled No.9

Atlético de Madrid announced Jonathan David's arrival on 1 September 2026, on loan from Juventus until 30 June 2027. The news landed on the evening the window shut.

The start of the season has been fine. Two wins and a draw from three La Liga matches, seven points, third place. One position was still open, though: the No.9.

For the opening match against Málaga, Diego Simeone put Ademola Lookman up front as a centre-forward. He was blunt about why. "Right now we don't have a forward we can start. Julián wasn't in the squad and Sørloth is injured." After using Lookman there again at Villarreal, Simeone said: "I have to apologise to Lookman. I know that isn't his position."

The club announced Sørloth's muscle injury on 12 August and he has yet to play this season. Julián Álvarez only confirmed he was staying on deadline day. Against Sevilla in the third round, not one of the eleven who started was a natural centre-forward.

Even in his best season, ten of them were penalties

The club's announcement puts his five years at Lille at 232 appearances and 109 goals. Read that 109 on its own and you will misjudge him.

He never finished a Ligue 1 season as top scorer. His best was second in 2023-24, and of the 24 he scored in 2022-23, his highest tally, ten came from the spot. The decline also began before he moved to Turin. His non-penalty scoring rate fell from 0.58 per 90 in 2023-24 to 0.35 the following season.

In 2020-21, when Lille won Ligue 1, the club's leading league scorer was Burak Yılmaz with 16. David had 13, and he played fewer minutes than in any of his other four seasons there. He tends to be remembered as central to that title. That is not quite where he stood.

There is another number from that same season, though. Ten appearances and seven goals in the Champions League proper, 0.84 per 90. In the season his league scoring dropped, he managed that against better defences.

He could not finish the chances he made

His first season at Juventus finished on 46 appearances and eight goals across all competitions. In Serie A: 35 matches, six goals, 20 of them starts.

His Serie A xG was 0.45 per 90 and he scored 0.30. He was not turning those chances into goals.

The season split in two. When Igor Tudor was sacked at the end of October, David had one goal in ten matches. A caretaker took over briefly, then Luciano Spalletti arrived and the shooting numbers moved. By Opta's count, David averaged 1.8 shots per 90 with 0.3 on target across Tudor's ten matches, and 2.9 with 1.6 across Spalletti's first 14.

The pecking order did not shift back. Juventus re-signed Randal Kolo Muani in August for a fixed €38m. When David started against Parma, it was behind Kolo Muani, playing as a No.10.

He receives outside the box and scores inside it

The Analyst, Opta's own site, writes that David is most active in zone 14, the central strip just outside the opposition penalty area. Rather than staying high and stretching the last line, he drops a few yards, takes the ball and brings others into the move. In Ligue 1 in 2022-23 he received 278 progressive passes, second only to Kylian Mbappé's 279.

Where he receives and where he shoots are not the same place. In the big-five league matches Understat covers, 86% of his 425 shots since 2020-21 came from inside the penalty area, and only two of his goals came from outside it. He drops off, but he finishes in the box.

Opinion divides on his running in behind. The Analyst noted moments where he was too focused on dropping deep and did not make the run. Goal, in his final season at Lille, wrote that few defenders can keep pace once he goes.

The number that stays low is his success in the air. On FotMob's comparison with other forwards he sits in the bottom 30% in all six seasons from Lille onwards. He is not a man you aim crosses at.

What I want from him is that receiving. If Álex Baena or Kang-in Lee pick the ball up between the lines, a centre-forward who takes it short and joins the move gives them another way through. Then there is the availability: five seasons at Lille without once being left out of a league squad, and three injuries totalling 20 days on Transfermarkt's record. Over a long season that counts.

Whether to pay €25m can wait until next summer

What I value most in this deal is its shape. According to Juventus's disclosure to investors, the loan carries no fee. The purchase is Atlético's right rather than an obligation, and exercising it would cost €25m spread across four financial years. The disclosure sets out no triggering conditions.

That distinction matters. Nico González's deal last season turned the purchase into an obligation once certain conditions were met. They were not met, and he went back to Juventus in June. Álvaro Morata came on loan and was bought. Moussa Dembélé came on loan and was not. Hold only the right and the decision can wait until the loan is up.

The loan fee is free. The wages are not, and a non-EU place goes as well. David holds Canadian and American passports, so he takes the second of the three non-EU places La Liga allows. One left.

Even so, I think it is a good deal. Canada's all-time leading scorer, a 26-year-old who scored three against Qatar at this summer's World Cup, available for a season at no transfer fee. If it works, buy him. If it doesn't, send him back.

The condition is minutes. With Álvarez staying and Sørloth's return not far off, will he get enough of them for anyone to judge? Without time on the pitch there is nothing to base the decision on. I want to see how he moves at the Metropolitano first.