Meet The Players

These are the players from the last Free Kick Masters event held in 2008 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

David Villa

David Villa Sánchez (born December 3, 1981 in Tuilla (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.

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.

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.

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 Fernando Torres and Raul Gonzalez from the Spanish national squad.

Villa made his national debut on the 9^Th of February 2005 in Almeria, it was a match between Spain and San Marino where 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.

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

Personal information
David Villa

Full name	David Villa Sánchez
Date of birth	December 3, 1981 (1981-12-03) (age 25)
Place of birth	Langreo, Spain
Height	1.75 m
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Valencia
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) 71 (39)
National team²
2005–	Spain	22 (10)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 26 May 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 8 February 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Honors

Club

Copa del Rey : 2004
Spanish Super Cup : 2004

Individual

Zarra Trophy : 2006

For the full article go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Villa

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