Jonathan David finding his form at Juventus with home World Cup in Canada approaching

By Canadian Press on January 25, 2026.

ROME (AP) — Canada standout Jonathan David is rediscovering his form with a home World Cup approaching.

David scored his third goal in four matches and Juventus beat defending champion Napoli 3-0 in Serie A on Sunday.

The result meant that Luciano Spalletti got the better of Antonio Conte with both coaches meeting former squads.

Midway through the first half, David chested down a pass over the top from Manuel Locatelli and pushed it in.

Three minutes earlier, Juventus midfielder Khephren Thuram had hit the post, and three minutes after the goal the Turin club had another chance when Francisco Conceicao’s shot was cleared off the line by Napoli defender Alessandro Buongiorno.

Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic added second-half goals for host Juventus.

Napoli remained third, three points behind AC Milan, which visited Roma later Sunday. Juventus moved level on points with fourth-place Roma.

Spalletti coached Napoli to the Serie A title in 2023, while Conte led Juventus to three straight Italian league titles after also playing for the club.

David scored in his Serie A debut for Juventus in August but then had a long drought before rediscovering his form this month with a goal and an assist against Sassuolo and another goal against Cremonese. He also had an assist in Juve’s victory over Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday.

David’s season has also had to weather a coaching change, with Spalletti replacing the fired Igor Tudor in October.

Canada is co-hosting this year’s World Cup with the United States and Mexico.

Canada is in a group with Qatar, Switzerland and another team still to be determined by European playoffs that include four-time champion Italy.

Lukaku makes season debut for Napoli

The only good news for Napoli was that Romelu Lukaku came on in the second half for his first action since getting injured during a preseason friendly.

Lukaku wasted his only chance after a nice setup from Rasmus Hojlund.

Also, seventh-place Atalanta routed Parma 4-0 with Giacomo Raspadori scoring in his first start for the Bergamo club after transferring from Atletico Madrid.

Daniele De Rossi’s Genoa came back from two goals down to beat 10-man Bologna 3-2 with an injury-time winner from Junior Messias; and Sassuolo beat Cremonese 1-0.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press

Share this story: