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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.

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