For several years now David Villa has been one of the top strikers in Europe but hasn’t got the recognition that he deserves. Now having sealed a big money move to Barcelona in the summer and currently leading the World Cup scoring charts with five goals, it seems that finally the 28-year-old is finally getting his rewards.
His exploits in the World Cup have now made him revered as Spain’s number one striker instead of Fernando Torres who many people would have given that label to previously. It’s amazing that with his scoring record he remained at Valencia for so long where he has scored 107 goals in 166 league games for Los Che in the last five years, which is just phenomenal. His scoring record for Spain is also first class as he now has 43 goals in 63 games and he is without a doubt one of the best strikers in the world at the moment, if not the best. If he continues to perform for Spain in the World Cup and hits the ground running with Barcelona then he could be a real contender to win the inaugural FIFA Ballon D’Or in January.
It’s very intriguing that David Villa hasn’t come to prominence at an earlier age, he could to some extent be considered a late bloomer although he made the move to Valencia when he was 23-years-old. He spent five years at the club and always seemed reluctant to leave as he was a favourite at the club and seemed to enjoy an excellent relationship with the fans, but perhaps he will look back one day and think that he did spend too long there.
Without a doubt the main reason for Spain’s success in the World Cup so far has been David Villa and were it not for his goals, they may not have been fortunate to have beaten both Portugal and Paraguay. His manager Vincente Del Bosque has claimed that he would rather have Villa over Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, and based on all their World Cup exploits he has a very good point. Whereas a lot of big name players often go missing for their team when it matters, Villa is somebody who never has and can always be relied on to give his all for the team. Perhaps the fact that he has never been mentioned in the same breath as those kinds of players has been the secret to his success as there doesn’t seem to be as much pressure on him to deliver.
Before this World Cup even started it was clear that David Villa was a world class player and now his is simply proving it on the biggest stage of them all. He has fully deserved his move to Barcelona and he is worth every penny of the £34.2m transfer fee that they paid for him. But considering they paid around that amount plus Samuel Eto’o for Zlatan Ibrahimovic is laughable, as the Swede is nowhere near as good as Villa and will probably lose his first team place to the Spaniard.
Despite the fact that he probably should have moved on from Valencia a year or two earlier, David Villa still has a big future ahead of him and there is no limit how far he could go. He has all the attributes to win all the top accolades, not just at club level but on a personal one as well. Villa has worked very hard to get to where he is now and it’s hard to think of someone who is more deserving of success than he is.
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Click on image below to see the ITALIAN babes at the World Cup
