David Villa

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Personal information
David Villa Sánchez

Full name	David Villa Sanchez.
Date of birth	December 3 1981 (1981-12-03) (age 27)
Place of birth	Langreo, Spain
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Valencia CF
Number	7
Youth clubs
1991–1999 1999–2000	UP Langreo Sporting de Gijón B
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000–2003 2003–2005 2005–	Sporting de Gijón Real Zaragoza Valencia	80 (38) 73 (31) 91 (49)
National team²
2005–	Spain	29 (13)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10 February 2008. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 10 February 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

David Villa Sánchez (born December 3, 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. He is regarded by many to be one of today's top strikers, renowned for his shooting accuracy in front of goal.

1 Career
2 Honours
3 External links

Career

Childhood

At age 4 Villa broke his femur, almost leaving him with a permanent limp. That would have made it impossible to play football, however he made a full recovery.

Early career

Born in the Asturias region in Northern Spain, he got 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 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'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 would meet Chelsea FC. Unfortunately for Villa he failed to fire and a last minute goal from Michael Essien knocked them out.

International career

Villa made his national debut on February 9 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 3 goals.

After the World Cup, Villa continues 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 currently Spain's top scorer in Euro 2008 qualifying with 7 goals.

Honours

Club

Copa del Rey : 2004
Spanish Super Cup : 2004

Individual

Zarra Trophy : (2) 2005-06 2006-07

External links

v • d • e Spain squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Casillas • 2 Salgado • 3 Pernía • 4 Marchena • 5 Puyol • 6 Albelda • 7 Raúl • 8 Xavi • 9 Torres • 10 Reyes • 11 García • 12 López • 13 Iniesta • 14 Alonso • 15 Ramos • 16 Senna • 17 Joaquín • 18 Fàbregas • 19 Cañizares • 20 Juanito • 21 Villa • 22 Pablo • 23 Reina • Coach: Aragonés

v • d • e Valencia CF – current squad
2 Sunny • 3 Maduro • 4 Raúl Albiol • 5 Marchena • 7 David Villa • 8 Baraja • 9 Morientes • 11 Éver • 12 Caneira • 13 Hildebrand • 14 Vicente • 15 Helguera • 16 Mata • 17 Joaquín • 18 Žigić • 19 Arizmendi • 20 Alexis • 21 Silva • 22 Edu • 23 Miguel • 24 Moretti • 25 Mora • Coach: R. Koeman