David Villa Sánchez (
Spanish pronunciation: [daˈβið ˈβiʎa]; born 3 December 1981) is a Spanish professional
footballer who plays as a
striker for American club
New York City FC. He is nicknamed
El Guaje (
The Kidin
Asturian) because as a youngster he frequently played football with children much older than him.
[4][5]
Despite sustaining a serious injury as a child, Villa started his professional career with
Sporting de Gijón. He moved to
Real Zaragoza after two seasons, where he made his
La Liga début, winning the
Copa del Rey and
Supercopa de España. He joined
Valencia CF in 2005 for a transfer fee of €12 million and was part of the Valencia team that won the Copa del Rey in the
2007–08 season. In 2010 he moved to
FC Barcelona for €40 million where he won his first
La Liga and
UEFA Champions League titles. After a €5.1 million transfer, he spent the 2013–14 season at
Atlético Madrid, winning another La Liga title before leaving for New York City.
Villa made his international début for
Spain in 2005. He has since participated in four major tournaments, becoming an integral member of the Spain teams that won
Euro 2008 and the
2010 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. He is the first Spanish player to ever reach 50 international goals and retired from internationals after the
2014 World Cup with 59 in 97 matches, making him Spain's
all-time top goalscorer as well as the country's top scorer in the World Cup with 9 goals.
[6] The goals-to-games ratio he has achieved for the national team has not been matched by any player since
Alfredo Di Stéfano.
[6][7]
(VIA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Villa)
