David Villa

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David Villa
Personal information
Full name	David Villa Sánchez
Date of birth	December 3, 1981 (age 25)
Place of birth	Langreo, Spain
Height	1.75 m
Nickname	El Guaje (The Kid)
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–current	Sporting de Gijón Real Zaragoza Valencia	80 (38) 73 (31) 62 (35)
National team2
2005–present	Spain	20 (10)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 March 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 8 February 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

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

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Valencia 1.3 International career 2 Honours 2.1 Real Zaragoza 3 Personal life 3.1 Childhood 4 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] 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 over £8 million to secure his services in the summer of 2005.

[edit] Valencia

In the 2005-06 season, he scored 25 goals in 35 league matches for Valencia, to finish one 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^rd April 2006.

[edit] International career

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.

Recently, on March 23, 2007, Villa scored in a 2-1 win over Denmark. His Valencia teammate Fernando Morientes had scored earlier.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Real Zaragoza

• Copa del Rey 2004
• Spanish Super Cup 2004

[edit] Personal life

Villa is married to Patricia and has a daughter named Zaida who was born on December 7^th, 2005.

[edit] Childhood

At age 4 Villa broke his thighbone, almost leaving him with a permanent limp this would of made it impossible to play football, however he made a full recovery. During his childhood he idolised Spanish striker Luis Enrique, Villa now wears the number 21 shirt for the Spanish national team as this is the number Luis Enrique wore.

[edit] External links

• SkySports World Cup Profile
• Profile at GFDb.com
• Spain stats
• David Villa history
• Yahoo sports profile

	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

Valencia CF - Current Squad
1 Cañizares | 2 Miguel | 3 Del Horno | 4 Ayala | 5 Marchena | 6 Albelda | 7 Villa | 8 Baraja | 9 Morientes | 10 Angulo | 11 Regueiro | 13 Mora | 14 Vicente | 15 Joaquín | 16 Viana | 17 Navarro | 18 Jorge López | 19 Gavilán | 20 Albiol | 21 Silva | 22 Edu | 23 Torres | 24 Moretti | 25 Butelle | 26 Cerra | 28 Nacho Insa | 29 Córcoles | 30 Aarón Ñíguez | 31 Pallardó | Coach: Flores