Football Features - Part 9: Top 12 Strikers at the World at the Moment
4. David Villa:
Considered to be one of the best Spanish strikers in the world, David Villa has shown that he is a consistent performer and he has proven himself time and time again. The Spaniard started his career from the Spanish club UP Langreo and became a vital part of its youth team.
David Villa wasn’t destined to be a footballer. His father told the press later in his career that they lived in a place where the only future a child could have was to work in the mines. After such humble beginnings, David Villa went ahead and proved his worth across the globe.
After joining Langreo’s youth team which was a low graded Spanish club, Villa’s talent was recognized by Sporting Gijon. After featuring in their B team, David Villa managed to score a lot of goals for his club and was promoted to its A team. He represented the club on 80 occasions and soon became a regular starter.
His talent was well recognized throughout the Spanish La Liga and soon he managed to earn a spot in Spanish club Real Zaragoza. Even though he did not really manage to make the best out of the move and only scored 32 times in 73 appearances, it was Valencia who decided to buy the striker for 15 million Euros.
In Valencia, David Villa simply became a phenomenal striker. The coach turned him into such an amazing striker that he never missed out on scoring opportunities in any of the seasons that he played with the Spanish club. The number 7 became a consistent performer for the club and starter featuring as a first team player as soon as he entered the squad of the team.
The striker proved his worth by scoring goals in almost every match that he played and even if he did not manage to score a goal, he helped the team by making a chance to win games. Even though he couldn’t guide the club to glory, he still helped the team by scoring goals and by helping the club qualify for the UEFA Champions League. With 166 appearances, David Villa managed to find the net on 107 times, which is simply sensational.
Right after a fabulous season in Valencia, he was spotted by many big clubs including Manchester United. However, it was the 6 time trophy winners Barcelona who managed to bag this goal scoring machine as they lost Henry from their side. With David Villa in their ranks, everyone thought that the team would become extraordinary. The goal scorer did live up to the expectations as he found the net in the first game that he played for the Spanish Champions.
After Villa registered success in the Spanish La Liga, the striker went on to represent Spain. Although David has only played 67 matches for Spain but the striker has managed to equalize Raul’s record of 44 goals and is just 1 goal away from beating the Spanish strikers’ record of the most goals scored for Spain.
Villa managed to become a threat to all the teams that came against Spain in the FIFA World Cup 2010 and with a successful qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup 2010, David Villa and company managed to take the team to the World Cup finals.
With a successful performance by Spain in the group stages with the help of David Villa, they managed to go through to the next rounds where they defeated teams like Paraguay and Portugal along with Germany to reach the final. Even though David Villa did not score in the final of the FIFA World Cup 2010, he was still on the winning side as Andres Iniesta helped the team win the tournament. However, it was still the fabulous striker who scored 5 goals for his country and became a contender for the golden boot award. After a lot of rumour mongering, the award was given to German striker Thomas Muller.
David Villa is definitely one of the best strikers in the world who cannot be counted out when it comes down to scoring goals.
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