David Villa
David Villa Sánchez is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, Villa is the all-time top goalscorer of the Spain national team. He is currently the vice-president of Spanish Tercera Federación club CF Benidorm.
Nicknamed El Guaje due to a reputation of playing football with children much older than him, Villa sustained a serious injury as a child but managed to start his professional career with Sporting de Gijón in 2001. He moved to Real Zaragoza after two seasons, where he made his La Liga debut, and won the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España. He joined Valencia in 2005 for a transfer fee of €12 million and captured another Copa del Rey title.
After a five-season tenure in Valencia where Villa elevated into one of the best players in La Liga, he signed for Barcelona for €40 million in 2010. In his first season, he won his first La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles, scoring in the 2011 final. He left the club in 2013 after transferring to Atlético Madrid, where he won another La Liga title and reached the 2014 UEFA Champions League final. After a single season in the Spanish capital, Villa departed to join new MLS franchise New York City, where he became the club's record goalscorer and appearance maker, winning the MLS MVP Award for best player in 2016. In 2018, Villa announced his departure from New York, to join Vissel Kobe in Japan before retiring in 2020.
Villa made his international debut for Spain in 2005. He participated in four major tournaments, and was an integral member of the Spain teams that won UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He scored three goals at the 2006 World Cup, was the top scorer at Euro 2008, and earned the Silver Boot at the 2010 World Cup. His displays for Spain and Valencia saw him named in the FIFPro World XI and UEFA Team of the Year for 2010. Having scored at the 2014 World Cup, Villa established himself as Spain's top scorer in World Cup history, with nine goals. He became the first Spanish player to ever reach 50 international goals and, after a brief comeback in 2017, he retired from the national team with 59 goals in 98 matches.
Childhood and early career
Villa was born in Tuilla, a small parish in Langreo, Asturias, a region in northern Spain, the son of José Manuel Villa, a miner. When Villa was four, his chances of becoming a footballer were put in jeopardy when he suffered a fracture to the femur in his right leg, but he made a complete recovery. Due to the injury, he and his father worked on strengthening his left leg and Villa ultimately became ambidextrous. He recalls his father being consistently supportive: "He would be there throwing me the ball over and over, making me kick it with my left leg when my right was in plaster after breaking it, I was four. I can barely remember a single training session when my dad wasn't there. I have never been alone on a football pitch."Villa admitted that he came close to giving up football at the age of 14 after growing disillusioned and falling out with his coach. However, thanks to his parents' encouragement, he persisted in pursuing his dream, realising his talent could earn him a living. "In those days I was a nobody, not earning a penny and after being made to sit on the bench all season I just wanted to get away and play with my friends" he said. "But my dad always supported me and cheered me up until my career turned round." He went on to begin his footballing career at UP Langreo and when he turned 17 he joined the Mareo football school.
Club career
Sporting Gijón
Villa attracted interest from many Asturian teams, but one of the province's bigger teams, Real Oviedo, declared that he was too short and that they did not believe he had sufficient potential. He subsequently got his professional breakthrough at his local club Sporting de Gijón, following in the footsteps of his childhood idol Quini. Starting out at the team's youth ranks, he made his first-team debut in the 2000–01 season. After scoring 25 goals in two seasons, he became a first team regular. Pepe Acebal, Sporting's manager at the time, said that Villa initially lacked the stamina to have a real impact and had to be given his chance bit by bit and that Villa's capacity for work was "unrivalled".Real Zaragoza
2003–04 season
With his goal tally nearly reaching 40 goals after spending two full seasons in Sporting's main team, Villa got his chance in Spain's top-flight when Sporting were in financial difficulty – newly promoted Real Zaragoza signed him for approximately €3 million in the summer of 2003. The striker had no trouble adapting to playing at the higher level, netting 17 times in his first season at Zaragoza. His league debut came during Zaragoza's first La Liga game since his arrival, where the team were defeated 1–0 away by Galician side Deportivo de La Coruña while his first goal came two games later, an eighth-minute goal against Real Murcia which put Zaragoza 2–0 up in a match which ended 3–0. 4 December 2003 saw him net his first brace in a 2–2 draw against Athletic Bilbao and on 25 April 2004, he scored his first hat-trick in a tight 4–4 draw against Sevilla which saw Villa score all four of Zaragoza's goals, putting his team ahead on two occasions.Zaragoza reached the 2004 Copa del Rey final where he played a big part in the team's victory, scoring a crucial goal to put the Aragonese outfit 2–1 up against Real Madrid in a match which eventually ended 3–2. Soon after, he earned his first international call-up and cap, which resulted in Zaragoza fans becoming so proud of his achievements that they invented the football chant "illa illa illa, Villa maravilla", a play on the words "Villa" and "maravilla", the latter which translates to "marvel" but can also mean "wonderful" or "great" in that context.
2004–05 season
After Zaragoza's triumph in the Copa del Rey, they were granted a place in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup; this was Villa's first time playing in a European competition. In the team's opening group game, against Utrecht, Villa netted a brace in the dying minutes of the game, which ended 2–0 in Zaragoza's favour. In the round of 16, Zaragoza faced Austria Wien. The first leg ended 1–1, while Villa scored in the second leg in an eventual 2–2 draw; Austria Wien progressed on the away goals rule. Meanwhile, in La Liga, Villa excited Zaragoza fans on 23 September 2004 by putting the team 1–0 up against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, although Barcelona came back to win the game 4–1. On 17 April 2005, Villa scored a brace which helped see off Sevilla in a 3–0 victory.Valencia
2005–06 season
After his success at Zaragoza, the team was in need of money; as a result, Villa made his big move to one of Spanish football's heavyweights, as a new look Valencia under Quique Sánchez Flores parted with €12 million to secure his services in the summer of 2005. During his first game in a Valencia shirt, an Intertoto Cup match against Belgian outfit Gent, Villa scored the first goal in a game which Valencia won 2–0. He made his league debut for Valencia coming on as a substitute against Real Betis in a 1–0 win on 27 August 2005. The next match would see his previous team, Zaragoza, leading 2–1 for the majority of the match; however, on the 81st minute, Villa came on as a late substitute for Rubén Baraja and scored the equalizer within the space of a minute, earning Valencia a point in a 2–2 draw.On 21 September, Villa would once again save Valencia a vital point by netting a brace against Barcelona at Camp Nou, actually giving his team the lead at one point after Víctor Valdés' clearance rebounded off Villa's back and into the net. On 23 October, Villa scored the winning goal against another Spanish giant, this time Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, and would once again score against Barcelona on 12 February 2006, his one-goal proving enough to secure all three points in a 1–0 victory. Villa scored a goal against Deportivo La Coruña at the Riazor on 4 February 2006, later described as "superb" by ESPN and "his best" by Sid Lowe, who went on to credit it even more pointing out he achieved it "on the turn". Hitting the ball from the halfway line it sailed over the keepers head and into the net.
Villa scored his first hat-trick for Valencia against Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés in La Liga on 23 April 2006. He managed the hat-trick in just over five minutes, making it one of the quickest hat-tricks ever recorded. Valencia won that game 3–0. That season saw him score 25 goals in 35 league matches for Valencia, finishing one goal behind the league's top scorer Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona. Villa's goal tally that year was the best that any Valencia player had ever achieved since Edmundo Suárez over 60 years prior.
2006–07 season
Villa's form continued into the 2006–07 season, with the striker forming a partnership up front with former Real Madrid star Fernando Morientes. Between them, Villa and Morientes netted 43 goals in all competitions. That year also saw Villa debut in the UEFA Champions League; his first match was a qualifying match, coming on as a late substitute in a 1–0 first leg loss against Red Bull Salzburg. He went on to start the second leg and scored in a 3–0 win which saw Valencia qualify for the Champions League group stages. Crucial goals against Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk helped Valencia qualify for the knockout stages, where they faced Inter Milan. Villa scored a free-kick goal in the first leg away from home, while one of Inter's defenders complained that Villa had "made us look like idiots, all on his own". Valencia went through to the quarter-finals, where they faced Chelsea. Villa featured in both games but failed to make the score sheet as Valencia were knocked out by the London team 3–2 on aggregate. In October 2006, he was included among the 50 nominees for the Ballon d'Or.A crucial goal against Espanyol and a brace against Sevilla helped him reach 16 goals that season and would see him come sixth in La Liga's top scorer list that season while he created more assists than anyone.