David Villa Sánchez

David Villa Sánchez (born 3 December 1981 in Tuilla), nicknamed El Guaje (The Kid in Asturian) is a Spanish footballer, who currently plays as a striker for Valencia CF and Spain.

He started his career with Sporting de Gijón and progressed through their youth ranks and B-team. He made his professional debut in 2000 in Spain's Segunda División. He moved to Real Zaragoza after two seasons, leaving Gijón with a total of 38 goals and 80 appearances.

He made his La Liga debut at Zaragoza and the following two seasons were successful ones, scoring 31 goals in 73 appearances and winning the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España, his first senior honours. He joined his current club Valencia in 2005 for a transfer fee of €12 million. He was the second highest scorer in La Liga season 2005–06 with 25 goals, and won the Copa del Rey for a second time in the 2007–08 season.

Villa plays as a Spanish international and made his debut for the team against San Marino in 2005. He has since participated in two major tournaments; 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2008. He scored three goals at the 2006 World Cup and was top scorer at Euro 2008 with four goals despite missing two games including the final, which Spain won. He is the fifth top scorer of all time for Spain—of those ranking above him, only Raúl González and Fernando Morientes are still currently playing.

Club career

Childhood and early career

David Villa was born on 3 December 1981 in Tuilla, a small village in Langreo, Asturias, a region in northern Spain. The son of a miner, his professional career was put in jeopardy at the age of four when he was left limp after suffering a severe fracture to his femur, but thanks to a non-invasive approach he was able to make a complete recovery.

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 carried on pursuing his dream and realised 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 began his footballing career at UP Langreo. Due to an injury that he suffered to his right leg he began to work on strengthening his left leg and ultimately became an ambidextrous footballer. When he turned 17 he joined the Mareo football school.

Villa was receiving interest from many Asturian teams, however one of the province's bigger teams, Real Oviedo, did not show any interest and declared 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. He made his first-team debut in the 2000 – 01 season after rising through the teams youth ranks and B-team. The next season he was a first team regular, scoring 18 league goals, and 20 the next season.

After scoring 40 goals in just three seasons at Gijón, he got his chance in Spain's top-flight 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 a crucial goal against Real Madrid. Soon after he earned his first international call-up and cap which resulted in Zaragoza fans inventing the football chant "illa illa illa, Villa maravilla" which is a play on the words "Villa" and "maravilla" which can be translated into marvel, wonderful, to work wonders (in verbal form), or great.

Valencia

David Villa made his big move to one of Spanish football's heavyweights as Valencia parted with €12 million (£8.2 million) to secure his services in the summer of 2005.

In the 2005-06 season, he scored 25 goals in 35 league matches for Valencia, to finish 1 goal behind the league's top scorer Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona. Villa scored a remarkable goal against Deportivo La Coruna at the Riazor, hitting the ball from the half way line it sailed over the keepers head and into the net. He scored his first hat-trick for Valencia against Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés in La Liga 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. Valencia won that game 0-3.

In October, 2006 he was included among the 50 nominees for the Ballon d'Or (often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year Award.

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. He scored a 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 27 games, despite the teams poor performance of a 10th placed finish in La Liga.

La Liga 2007-08 was not easy for Villa nor for his team mates, he did, however, manage to see the back of the net 18 times. He also won his first trophy with Valencia, winning the Copa del Rey for the second time in his career, beating FC Barcelona 3-2 in the semi-finals and then Getafe CF 3-1 in the final. giving the team a place in the UEFA Cup.

He signed a new six-year contract at the Mestalla. The 26-year-old ended speculation over his future by putting pen to paper on a deal which ties him to Valencia until 2014.

In October, 2008, Kaká praised Villa, speaking to Canal+, he claimed that Villa is "the best Spanish footballer" adding that "The player with whom I would most like to play is David Villa of Valencia."

On December 2, 2008, Villa came 7th in the Ballon d'Or 2008 rankings and on 12 January 2009, Villa was announced as the 9th best player of 2008, according to the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year awards.

Currently, Villa is second top scorer in La Liga behind Samuel Eto'o.

International career

Villa marked his international debut under Luis Aragonés on 9 February 2005 in a 2006 World Cup Qualifier where Spain beat San Marino 5-0 at the Estadio del Mediterráneo.

Brilliant form for Valencia saw him get called up as part of the 23-man squad to represent Spain at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In Spain's first match at the tournement, a 4-0 win against Ukraine, Villa netted a brace, and also put Spain 1-0 up against France in the Round of 16, although Spain went on to lose the match 3-1. Him and Fernando Torres finished as Spain's top scorers with three goals each.

By the end of 2006, Villa had become an integral part of the Spain team and ousted Raúl González from the team. Proving vital in Spain's qualification for Euro 2008, he was subsequently called up for the tournement. He scored a hat-trick in Spain's 4-1 win over Russia, making him the first player to hit a hat-trick at a UEFA European Championship since Patrick Kluivert in 2000, and only the seventh overall. In the next match, he secured a 2-1 win against Sweden with a goal in the 92nd minute. In the quarter finals, the Spain and Italy match was decided by penalties which Spain won 4-2, Villa took the first penalty and scored.

Spain once again met Russia in the semi-final, however, during the early stages of the match, Villa sustained a thigh injury after taking a free kick and as a result missed the final where Spain beat Germany 1-0 to claim their second win at the European Football Championships. Despite missing the final and the majority of the semi-final, Villa's 4 goals in the 4 games he played were enough for him to be top scorer of the tournement and was awarded the Golden Boot. He also made the UEFA Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament.

Such a successful year with the Spanish national football team saw Villa break the Spanish record of 10 goals in one year held by Raúl González since 1999 by scoring 12 goals (including the four that were scored at Euro 2008).

Villa began 2009 with a goal against England in a 2-0 friendly. With this goal, Villa broke another record and became the first Spanish international to have scored in 6 consecutive games, seeing off records set by Telmo Zarra and Ladislao Kubala. Speaking of the goal he said, "I am very happy with the goal. Truth is, I really want to see it on TV. The record is very nice. I would never have imagined in years that I would be able to obtain it. I am very proud and I hope I can continue breaking records".

Succeeding Raúl as Spain's number 7

The media, generally the Spanish one, has often compared and contrasted Villa with Raúl González and was even accused of taking the #7 jersey away from him. In March 2009, Villa spoke out against this saying, "I have not taken anything away from anybody, I was simply playing well for my club and the national coach gave me an opportunity. Too much has been said about the number issue. I’m not looking to cause any controversy. In fact, Raul and I were in the national squad together in the past. I haven’t forced anybody out." He was then questioned on whether the whole uproar created over Raúl's omission was affecting him personally, he said, "I’ve never liked it because I think it has been damaging for the both of us. We’ve always got on well together whenever we’ve met up for international duty, so I’m not concerned. I just work hard for myself. All I want is to be in the squad for every game, to have the Spain badge on my chest and to score as many goals as I can."

Speaking about Raúl's record with the Spanish national team as the nation's leading top scorer, Villa said, "I've got 25 goals but he's got 44 and is still playing. I'd be delighted to reach that tally as I'd help the national team achieve great victories and, in many years' time, I could see my name on a [scorers' list] that another young lad was trying to beat. That would be great."

Personal life

Although he prefers to keep his personal life out of the spotlight due to his discreet and introverted personality, it was still publicised that in 2003 Villa married his childhood sweetheart Patricia (who had also been a footballer in her teenage years). On 7 December 2005, their first child was born, a girl who they named Zaida. He has his daughter's name engraved on his personalised Adidas F50's, while one boot bears the Spanish flag, the other has the Asturian flag. He is the owner of a Porsche Cayenne, a five-seat mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle.

Source : www.aswers.com