It became increasingly clear that Jonathan David needed to get out of Juventus this summer, and he did just that with a loan move to Spanish giants Atlético Madrid.

David will be with the ambitious LaLiga club for the full 2026-27 season as they navigate domestic competitions as well as the Champions League, offering him a chance to re-establish himself at the top level after a down first year in Italy. The fans started to turn on David as the year went on and the current season began, but now he has a fresh start, which should hopefully boost both his playing time and his confidence.

If he succeeds, the club — coached by longtime Argentinian gaffer Diego Simeone — holds a reasonable €25 million (CAD $40.23 million) option to make it a permanent transfer.

Related Reading: Atletico Madrid sign Canada star striker Jonathan David on loan from Juventus with €25 million purchase option

“Jonny can play in any system, and in any kind of central attacking role, so even when Juventus tried him in the 10 over the weekend, I thought, ‘Yeah, he can do that,’” Canada head coach Marsch said on an episode of the Footy Prime podcast released Wednesday. “Juventus is an interesting club, and the number nine position at Juventus comes with big pressure and big expectation, and so however you want to look at that experience over the last year, you can look at it, but Jonny will be better for it.

“Going to Atlético, Simeone is a coach who who gets all these incredibly talented players to really buy into the team system and to give to each other, and even when they were asking me about Jonny, I said: ‘If you’re looking for a guy that will give to Simeone, and give to the team and do whatever it takes to help the team win — and have the talent to do the things you need to do at the striker position — this is the guy.”

Simeone favours a defensive style of football, and needs his forwards to be good counter-attackers. David, who is deceptively quick and good at making instinctive movements off the ball to get into scoring positions, should be a good match if given more opportunity to thrive than he got under Luciano Spalletti at Juve.

Simeone’s two-striker system won’t hurt his chances.

“I think Johnny will fit in there well,” Marsch added. “There’s always an adaptation, everything from language to culture to league, but I think it’s a big challenge for Jonny, an exciting challenge. For him, he probably needed something new where where he could commit himself fully and then find a way to be rewarded for it.

“He’ll fit in there well and I think he’ll do well.”