David Villa

David Villa

Personal information
Full name	David Villa Sanchez
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Valencia
Number	7
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 26 March 2008

David Villa Sánchez (born 3 December 1981 in Langreo, Asturias, Spain), nicknamed El Guaḥe (The Kid in Asturian) is a Spanish football player, who currently plays for Valencia CF and the Spanish national side.

Career

Early career

Born in the Asturias region in Northern Spain, he go his professional breakthrough at his local club Sporting de Gijón, for whom he made his first-team debut in the 2000–01 season. The next season he was a first team regular, scoring 18 league goals, and scored 20 the next season. After over 50 goals in just three seasons at Gijón, he got his chance in Spain's top-flight the La Liga, when promoted Real Zaragoza bought him in the summer of 2003. He had no trouble adapting to the step up in class and scored 17 times in his first season at Zaragoza. Villa led Zaragoza to a Copa del Rey victory scoring the winning goal against Real Madrid.

Soon after he earned his first international call-up and cap, Valencia decided to take a chance on him and parted with £8.2 million to secure his services in the summer of 2005.

Valencia

In the 2005–06 season, he scored 25 goals in 35 league matches for Valencia, to finish 1 goal behind the leagues top scorer Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona. He scored his first hat-trick for Valencia against Athletic Bilbao on the 23 April 2006. Villa managed the hat trick in just over 5 minutes (80th to the 85th minute) making it one of the quickest hat-tricks ever recorded.

Villa's form continued into the 2006–07 season, with the striker forming a prolific partnership up front with former Real Madrid star Fernando Morientes. Together, Villa and Morientes netted around 40 goals in all competitions, and also ousted Raúl González from the Spanish national squad. He scored a brilliant free kick goal in the 2nd round of the champions league against Inter Milan which helped lead Valencia through to the quarter finals where they eventually lost to Chelsea FC.

On his 100th league appearance for Valencia, Villa scored a hat-trick against Levante; his 54th, 55th and 56th league goals for the club. Another two goals on the final day of the season against Atletico Madrid meant he finished the season with 18 league goals from 29 games.

International career

Villa made his national debut on 9 February 2005 in Almeria. It was a match between Spain and San Marino in which Spain won 5–0.

Villa was included in Spain's 23 man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, and was favoured over the more established striker Raúl, to line up alongside Fernando Torres in the opening match against Ukraine. Villa made his first World Cup finals appearance scoring twice against Ukraine. He added one more from the penalty spot in Spain's 1–3 defeat to France in a Round of 16 knock-out match. He finished joint top goal scorer for Spain along with Fernando Torres in World Cup 2006 with three goals.

After the World Cup, Villa continued to be Spain's first choice striker, starting all 11 international matches during 2006–07 season. He also scored an impressive 8 goals from those matches and was Spain's top scorer in Euro 2008 qualifying with 7 goals. He scored the winning goal against Italy with a volley in a friendly match on 26 March 2008

Honours

Club

• Copa del Rey : 2004, 2007-08
• Spanish Super Cup : 2004

Individual

• Zarra Trophy : (2) 2005-06 2006-07

External links

• David Villa – FIFA competition record (archived)
• SkySports World Cup Profile
• Profile at GFDb.com
• Spain stats
• David Villa history
• Yahoo sports profile