World Cup diary: Meet Jonathon David, another hat-trick hero after Messi

The World Cup has a knack for producing unlikely heroes. This time, it was Canada's Jonathan David, who struck the host nation's first-ever World Cup hat-trick to secure its maiden victory at the tournament. The treble also propelled him to the top of the scoring charts with three goals, level with the great Lionel Messi.

He was instrumental in Canada's emphatic 6-0 rout of Qatar in Group B, a result that put the co-hosts in a strong position to reach the knockout stage. There was another notable milestone for the 26-year-old: he became the first Juventus player to score a World Cup hat-trick since Italy's Paolo Rossi achieved the feat against Brazil in 1982.

What made the victory even more significant for Canada was that it came in their eighth World Cup match, ending a long wait for a first-ever win on football's biggest stage. The magnitude of the achievement was still sinking in for the players.

"This result, this team — it means everything," David told FIFA.com. "Obviously, we had the chance to play in the World Cup before, but we didn't win a game and didn't get a point. In our first game here, we got a point, and now we have a win. That's a great step for what we can do going forward."

“What we’re trying to do and what this result means is that we can change the image of football in Canada.”

Born in New York to Haitian parents, David had moved from the US to Port-au-Prince and then to Ottawa with his parents - where he first fell in love with the game. Two decades and 4,500 kilometres to the west, he played a starring role in what is Canadian football’s finest hour. Appearing at just a third World Cup, the nation had not so much as collected a single tournament point until last week, and now they have four.

Canadian coach Jesse Marsch was peperred with questions about his star forward’s recent drought of goals as he failed to score in his past four international outings. “With that dude, he has scored a heck of a lot of goals for us. I know there’s some criticism or wherever, but since I’ve been here he leads the team in goals, assists and every attacking category. He has scored in the biggest games, we want him to score, he has scored. By the end of his career, he’ll have 60 goals or more, so you better put your seat belts on and get ready.”

David chipped: “Well, it’s the job of strikers to score. If I don’t score there’s criticism and if I do, then it’s a different story.” There is already a buzz if the striker will be switching over to Premier League next season as according to a BBC report, Canada’s leading alltime goalgetter (39 goals in 78 international appearnces) has been linked with Newcastle while Leeds United are also in the running.

Fan Festival catching on

The number of fans at the Fan Festival in 13 host cities of US, Canada and Mexico touched the two million visitor mark on Thursday after registering 1,992,302 visitors throughout the first round of matches that concluded on Wednesday.

While venues in Canada and the US have been consistently operating at capacity, the three Mexican host cities take the lead so far when it comes to attracting the biggest crowds in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara, respectively.