Canadian men’s national team striker Promise David is in the middle of the run that turns a promising young player into a household name.

In the past week alone, he signed a new deal with Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise and scored a brilliantly conceived goal against Honduras. Fresh off a training session and a double-portion lunch, he sat down for a long, unusually candid conversation, breaking down the Honduras finish frame by frame, walking through his 7-to-3 days at Union, sharing the story behind his first name, and remembering the youth coach whose quiet intervention kept him in the game.

First of all, how was lunch? How many calories do you need a day?

I don’t count. I’ve never counted. It’s just when my belly looks like a pregnant woman, then I know it’s a wrap. Today they had this rice with chicken, but the sauce was so good. I took one plate and then we had a meeting and I basically packed a whole another plate and gave it to the lady downstairs because they were packing up lunch so I could come do this. I was like, I need a second serving. It was good. But training is hard. I could eat like a criminal on death row.

Are you the type of athlete that has your regimen, eating a big breakfast, lunch, dinner, or are you eating constantly over the course of the day, in between training, in between meetings?

Big all the time. The harder the training, the more my brain just screams food, food, food. And training with Jesse is not easy. So my brain is screaming food times two exclamation marks. I’m a big breakfast guy though. If breakfast isn’t hitting, the whole day is a waste.

What’s your go-to?

If I’m at home, it could be pancakes, Frosted Flakes, oatmeal, bread. I have an egg sandwich. Okay, I’m weird. Eggs have such good nutritional value, but I hate the taste of eggs. So I fry an empty omelette with a little bit of cinnamon, stick it between slices of bread, and put an enormous amount of jelly inside so that it literally just tastes like a jelly sandwich. So I’m still eating the egg. Then I kill it with a smoothie. Not a cup. I blend a whole blender and drown it.

It’s been quite a week for you. You get a new deal at your club, you score a beauty against Honduras. How’s the confidence feeling right now?

Top of worlds. It feels good. I feel like I’m still in a dream. I’m just going to wake up any second now. I’ve had a fantastic year, but it’s kind of like, can I go back to my club and repeat the same year, which I don’t really doubt.

You score one against Honduras and then it’s literally right after the game you have to be thinking about the next one, individually, because what’s the point of scoring the last goal if you can’t repeat the same action. The happiness is 24 hours short-lived and then it’s the next issue.

Tell me about that goal you scored against Honduras. Tell me you meant to bang it into the ground over the goalkeeper.

Yes. And I’ve done it before in Belgium. One of my Beveren coaches texted me saying I didn’t mean to do that, but I did. I remember Ali lining up for the shot, but I wanted him to cross it. Either way, the ball comes to me, and I peel off the defender’s blind side, so he can’t really see me.

As soon as I see the ball come, in my brain I’m just like, right foot touchdown soft, left foot drag. Because as soon as I touch it down, I’ve reacted before the defender. I know he’s going to be desperate and slide. So, left foot drag, and he’ll be out of the equation.

I just didn’t expect the goalie to rush out that quickly. If he rushes out that quickly, I can’t scoop and chip. So I’m like, just kick the ball into the ground. And even after it goes over him, you see me follow the ball to the post because I’m like, wait, I need to be there. Bounces, and bounces, and I’m like, cool. That was the whole mental process behind it.

Congrats on the new deal. Tell us about life in Belgium and that club in particular. It’s a club that not many people over here know too much about. You’re really making a mark for yourselves now, but how is life there?

For me personally, the club has consumed my life as a whole considering the fact that it’s really a 9-to-5, especially when I realize the position I’m in. So I’m putting in a lot of extra work. I get to the training ground at 7 and sometimes I’m clocking out at 3, and then I could do maybe two sessions, work with some coaches, then have the regular training, gym, eat.

Some days I used to sleep over there. There was no point in going back home because I didn’t have my license, so I wasn’t taking the train. The fact that I’m able to stay there for so long and not be drained emotionally just shows how uplifting a place it is and how cool the staff are.

They don’t even feel like staff members. They feel like moms, dads, aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters. That’s one of the reasons why we were able to win the league this year. Everybody was on the same wavelength.

We chatted briefly at the Nations League and just after I spoke to you, I interviewed Jesse and he said, “Did you ask Promise about his name? You have to ask him the story behind it.” What’s the deal here? Is that too private to leak?

I can give a shortened version without giving too many private details. My parents waited very long before they had their first kid. I have two sisters behind me. Weirdly, we all have the same initials. It’s Promise, Peace, Precious. We call ourselves three P’s in a pod because our initials are all P.

My mom was pregnant with me. There were a lot of complications where I don’t think I really should have been born. She was at church and the pastor gave her a specific Bible verse. It’s a verse I’ve kept close to my heart. It was literally just for her, for her situation in life. They prayed over it and she went back about two months later to get an ultrasound, and I was perfectly fine. And she was like, “God kept this promise. So I’m going to name the baby Promise.”