From the Estonian top flight to the Belgian Pro League: Canada’s Promise David’s unlikely route to firing Union St Gilloise towards a first title since 1935 | OneFootball

Union St Gilloise have done it again. The side have found another gem from a league that not many clubs at the top levels of European football are scouting. Over the summer the side decided to bring in a striker from the Estonian Meistriliiga who had scored an impressive 14 goals in 16 games for Nomme JK Kalju. However, few predicted that the 23-year-old Canadian forward to go on to be as successful in Belgian football as he has been.

With just four games to go in the Belgian Pro League, Union are sitting pretty as they hunt a first title since 1935. The side from Brussels are ahead of Club Brugge by a single point and have their destiny in their own hands. If they can match or better Club’s results from here on out, they should win the title. David has been a major factor in this charge towards the title. In the play-offs alone, the Canadian forward has grabbed five goals in six matches. Overall, that has given him 21 goals in 34 games across all competitions. Not bad for his first season in what many would consider a top European league in comparison to Estonia.

Yet, what about his time in Estonia? Did he also blow the Baltic league away, or was this sudden emergence in Belgium also a surprise for fans of Estonian football. The best place to find answers is with the team at the Estonian Football Podcast. Brothers Reece and Nate launched one of the more niche podcasts in football but it was clear that there was plenty of interest in football in the Baltics.

On whether or not David stood out in Estonia, the EFP lads said ‘You could see he had talent but it was raw, we always said if he had a brain he’d be world class. In his 2nd season we actually had him as our player to watch and predicted him for the top scorer so it wasn’t surprising when teams came for him in the summer’. It appears that the experience David has had in Estonia has set him up well for Belgium. That footballing brain has been switched on, and it is proving devastating for his opponents.

Yet originally David was not signed for the Kalju first team. Instead, he spent his first season with the sides second team, which play in the third tier of Estonian football. It didn’t take long for him to be pushing for a first team spot, with an impressive 22 goals in just 19 games. He saw time with the first team that year and helped himself to six goals. Yet it was the 2024 campaign where he really stood out, with those 14 goals in 16 games earning him the move to Union.

So, have the EFP been surprised by David’s success in Belgium? ‘There were rumours from multiple clubs around Europe for him, so when he went to Union SG we thought it was a good move for him to develop but we also didn’t expect him to play as much or become the star player he has become so soon in his career in Belgium, maybe a loan move to a lower level club but he has proved us wrong!‘. It’s safe to say David has proven quite a few people wrong so far this season. He has overtaken Franjo Ivanovic as the sides leading scorer and, should they secure the league title, it will have been party down to his form in recent weeks.

David’s meteoric rise is just another feather in the cap of a Union scouting department that finds players in unlikely places, for relatively small transfer fees, and turns them into stars in the Pro League. There is no doubt that David will be being extensively scouted this summer and may well follow in the footsteps of Deniz Undav, Victor Boniface and Mohamed Amoura.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson