Personal biography
David Villa Sanchez (born December 3, 1981, Tuilla, Langreo) made his first division debut with Zaragoza but really made his name with Valencia. However, his roots are in the mining region of Asturias in northern Spain where his father was a miner, and where he joined the local Mareo School associated to Sporting Gijon and soon made his way up the ranks to the reserves team and ultimately the first team.
He's the 11th player born in the region of Asturias to defend the Barça colours – previous famous compatriots in recent years being Quini, in the 80's and former captain Luis Enrique. Both of them recommended Barça to Villa.
David Villa's career has been characterized by his unerring ability to score plenty of goals. In his seven seasons in the first division before joining Barça he never scored less than 15 a season.
He joined Barça at his prime, already a proven striker after two terrific years at Zaragoza (2003-05) and five with Valencia (2005-10), racking up a spectacular record of 140 goals in 239 matches.
But in return for that, his only major honours were two Copas del Rey and one Spanish Supercup, so when he came to Barça he was naturally hopeful that his goals could finally be rewarded with more trophies, for which reason he was remarkably willing to adapt to the needs to his new club.
His honours were dramatically extended after just one year at Barça. In 2010/11, playing on the left side of attack under Josep Guardiola, Villa won the Spanish Supercup, the league and the Champions League. He ended the season with a cracking goal in the Wembley final against Manchester United.
In his second season on the FCB books, David Villa started the season with a goal in the Spanish Supercup against Real Madrid, but despite such a wonderful start, the season went horribly wrong. On December 15, 2011, in his 76th game for the club, he fractured his tibia at the Clubs World Cup against Al-Sadd. The injury marked the end of his season, in which he had already scored nine goals in 24 games.
He also missed out on Euro 2012, but has already been consecrated as the highest goalscorer in the history of the Spanish national team, and with five goals was the joint leading scorer along with Germany’s Müller, Holland’s Sneijder and Uruguay’s Forlán at the 2010 World Cup, won by Spain in South Africa.
