Skip to main content

Player Profile: David Villa

Name: David Villa Sánchez

Nickname: El Guaje (The Kid)

Date of birth: 03/12/1981

Nationality: Spanish

Position: Striker

Number: 7

Background: Born in a small village in northern Spain, Villa suffered a fracture to his femur at a young age. For most this would be a sign to give up on football but after making a full recovery Villa developed his strength in both his legs and thus became ambidextrous. This gave Villa his edge and after a hard struggle he was signed for Sporting de Gijón.

Villa was a huge success scoring 25 goals in two seasons. He had cemented his place in the first team. With the success at Sporting de Gijón, more and more big clubs had started sniffing around the then 22 year old Villa. Villa is well known for being a relentless hard worker and described by his Sporting de Gijón manager, Pepe Acebal, as having an "unrivalled work capacity" he completed his transfer from the Segunda División side to Real Zaragoza.

Spending little time settling into his new side, Villa netted 17 goals in his first season with the club. Villa helped Real Zaragoza to reach the Copa del Rey final and was an integral part of the final itself.

But when Real Zaragoza ran into financial difficulties, Villa was sold for a fee of €12 million to Valencia and was given his chance at one of the big clubs of the league. To date Valencia is the club that Villa has spent the longest period. He stayed with the club for five years and with a scoring record of 108 goals in 166 appearances, became one of the club's most prolific goalscorers.

Helping the club reach the knockout stages of the Champions League, made Villa noticed on the European stage. He started to receive praise from speactators and players alike. One Inter Milan defender quoted as saying "Villa made us look like idiots, all on his own."

Villa went on to have a very successful career at Valencia but with success comes pressure for the club to keep their star man and in the summer of 2010, FC Barcelona splashed out a fee of €40 million to acquire his services.

Villa orignally lined up with Messi and Pedro. With two players of the quality of Messi and Pedro, goals were sure to come for Villa. The goals began to flow just as they had done with his last clubs. For most players the history and drama surrounding an El Clásico is enough to throw them from their game but not for El Guaje. Villa bagged a brace in Barcelona's 5-0 romp at Camp Nou. He finished the season by scoring a 25 yard finesse shot for the third goal in Barcelona's 3-1 Champions League final victory over Manchester United.

Starting where he left off, Villa continued his goal scoring form in the 2011-12 season. His first goal came in a 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in the 2011 Supercopa de España. After contributing two more goals for Barcelona, Villa suffered a season ending injury. In a Club World Cup match against Al Sadd, Villa broke his tibia and was ruled out for six months.

Recently becoming Spain's all time top scorer, him and Spain are eager for him to be available for the upcoming European Championship campaign. In which Spain are aiming for a record of three major titles in succession.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Osasuna shock Barça

Guardiola and substitute Iniesta  Osasuna battled the icy conditions to produce a shock 3-2 victory over Barcelona. The Catalans' poor away form continued as they failed to adapt to a frozen pitch and conceded two early goals. A comeback looked likely when Alexis scored in the 50th minute but Barça's hopes faded when Raúl Garcia scored Osasuna's third. Osasuna adapted to the conditions the quickest and found themselves ahead in the fourth minute. Lekic was the recipient of a clever pass that gave him space in the box and he calmly finished past Valdés to make it 1-0. Pedro stared the game but for a player who's game heavily relies on his pace, a frozen pitch is a nightmare. The winger failed to get past any defenders and his shot fired disappointingly wide. Pedro's nightmare was representative of the whole Barcelona game, the world class passing was unable to function in such cold conditions. Lekic doubled his goal tally in the 21st minute. A Barcelona-esqu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Barcelona and Valencia end level

Barcelona go into their second leg home tie level with Valencia as the game at the Mestalla ended 1-1. Thanks to goals from Jonas and Puyol. The semi-final cup game produced a well contested match with both sides having good opportunities to score. But in the end it was only Jonas and Puyol who could take their chance. Valencia started the game well and were looking the most likely to score. Soldado and Piatti were causing chaos in the Barça defence and it was Saldado who was involved in one of the biggest talking points of the game. The in-form Spanish striker broke past the defence and looked to go round the Barcelona keeper. Pinto raced off his line to the edge of the area and as Soldado attempted to knock it past him, the goalie hand-balled out of his area. Neither the referee or the linesman spotted it and Pinto was lucky to remain on the field Valencia did not sulk though and continued to press, Soldado coming close with a well hit v...
Post a Comment
Read more

Barcelona book their place in the final

Xavi rejoices after sealing the win Barcelona will face Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final after beating Valencia 2-0 at the Camp Nou. Barcelona were the better team on the night and if they had taken a few more chances, would've killed the game off very early on. Cesc Fàbregas and Xavi Hernandez were both on the score sheet as Barça ensured Pep Guardiola's twelfth final since he arrived on the Barça bench. Both teams started the game with equal opportunities but neither side could create any real goal scoring chances. Feghouli saw his shot hit the side netting before the deadlock was broken in the 15th minute. Cesc Fàbregas made a well timed run and was picked out by Lionel Messi from inside his own half. The summer signing looked to have overrun the opportunity but you can never rule out an inform player such as Fàbregas from finding the net. From the acutest angle Fàbregas chipped the ball over the Valencia keeper and put Barça ahead. This goal jetted Barça i...
Post a Comment
Read more