Promise David, Brighton’s new striker: ‘Players are similar, but I’m different’

“They’ve got a great data scout system, that’s all I can say,” says Promise David of the moment Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise first made contact and changed the course of the new Brighton & Hove Albion striker’s career.

“They picked me out of thin air, but they said they had been monitoring me for a while,” he adds. “At first, I thought it was a spam, like a scam. Because if you’re playing in the third division in Estonia, you don’t expect a team playing in the Europa League to call. But they did and I went. A couple of months in, I was having the best times of my life.”

David was at Estonian club Nomme Kalju, where he had regularly been playing for their under-21s in the third tier, when he received the message from USG. “Me and my agent at the time both saw it and I was like, ‘Nah, it’s not that’,” he says. “And then we sat on a Zoom call and I said, ‘Oh sh*t, it is them’. 

“They gave me a whole pitch, but I said yes before the pitch. It’s like sitting in a job interview and you’ve already accepted the job, telling all this bullsh*t, and I’m already there. I was packing my suitcases mid-call, trying to think how I was going to box everything together. And then, two weeks later, I was in Belgium.”

David’s eagerness to make the move two years ago to USG — the Brussels-based club in Belgium’s top flight where Brighton owner-chairman Tony Bloom is a minority shareholder — is understandable when he reels off a pathway that sounds more like a student’s gap-year jaunt around Europe than the glitz and glamour associated with making his Premier League debut as a substitute in Brighton’s 4-3 defeat at Chelsea on Sunday.

“A year and a half in division three in Croatia (at Trnje). Eight months in the USL (with Tulsa), didn’t play,” he tells a small group of reporters after his Premier League debut at Stamford Bridge. “A year in Malta with (Valletta) under-21s and the first team. A year in Estonia, playing division three with under-21s and then six months on the first team, and then two years with Union Saint-Gilloise.

“I was just backpacking and having fun playing football through Europe. And seeing where things would take me next. I couldn’t fit in or stay long anywhere and I just kept packing my bags and moving on. I found a really good place. Actually, I didn’t find a good place. A good place found me at Union Saint-Gilloise. There, I was able to train like a professional and live like a professional. And good things came out of it. And then, boom, here I am.”

David made a season-long loan move to Brighton in August, days before they opened the campaign with a 4-0 win against Aston Villa at the Amex Stadium. The deal includes an obligation to buy for £22million ($29.7million) if certain conditions are met. Goals have been the currency of the laid-back 25-year-old at every level he has played at so far.

He scored 41 times in 82 appearances for USG — 23 with his right foot, four with his left foot, three headers, eight penalties and one deflected shot. David spearheaded their first Belgian Pro League title in 90 years with 24 goals in his first season. He caught the eye of USG after 30 league goals in 44 first-team appearances in Estonia for Kalju. He has also bagged four goals in 14 international appearances for Canada.

David is not fazed by the step up to the Premier League. He is aiming to stand out for reasons stretching beyond his imposing frame (he is 6ft 5in tall). “I’m just hoping to bring goals,” he says. “I think I’m a very unique player. As long as I can just catch up, I think I’ll be fine. I’m pretty good in the box, in terms of finding balls and just being in the right spaces at the right time. Very good hold-up play. I like to play with my back to goal against big centre-backs and being able to advance the team forward. I’m pretty tall, so in the air I like to get up there.”

David believes his unconventional elevation to the Premier League and his relaxed outlook will help him take the challenge in his stride. “Same sh*t, different day,” he says. “It’s the same thing, different stadium. Same game I was playing four years ago, just different stadium, different opponents.

“I was just enjoying playing football through Europe. Not really thinking what would come of it. Just thinking about my next meal. It got a little bit serious in Estonia. I came out of it and I was pretty happy. I had nothing else to do (at USG), so I had no choice but to adjust. My family is in Canada, I haven’t got any hobbies. Just get to work and put yourself in it and see what comes out.”

David has big boots to fill at Brighton. He is the replacement — albeit a different type of No 9 — for Danny Welbeck, last season’s top scorer with 13 league goals, following the 35-year-old’s August move to Chelsea. “I kind of only watch myself,” David says. “I think every player is different. Players are similar, but I think I’m different.”

The settling-in process on the south coast has been easy. “It’s been the best it ever could be,” he says. “A thousand staff members helping me, a thousand HR and a thousand coaches. I still don’t know everybody’s name, but yeah, pretty good.”

Replicating his goalscoring record with USG will be harder. “It’s just a lot more intensive. A lot more running,” David says of his early impressions of the Premier League. Has training been different under German head coach Fabian Hurzeler? “Same pattern, different intensity,” he says. “Same structure, different intensity.”

David is no stranger to intense experiences. He made his comeback from hip muscle surgery in Canada’s opening 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina at this summer’s World Cup.

He scored from the bench in the last group game, a 2-1 defeat by Switzerland, then featured twice more in the knockout stages as a substitute, in a 1-0 victory for Jesse Marsch’s side against South Africa in the last 32 and a 3-0 exit at the hands of Morocco in the last 16.

“I got injured in February, I was out for three months,” David says. “And then your first game back is World Cup game one in your home country. But it was a great experience. I think every game we broke records. With the national team, all of us know each other from young. You want to see old friends and being able to train together, so it’s pretty good.”

Family members are relishing David’s journey from obscurity. “I was scraping by,” he says. “They’ve been pretty ecstatic about the rise. The fact that I was able to join the national team, play in competitions, World Cup, all that stuff. They’re just enjoying the ride.”

So too will David in the next chapter of a remarkable route to the Premier League.