David Villa
8
that needed to be cleared up." On 18 October, Villa was nominated for the Ballon D'Or, while nearly two weeks later, on 30 October, he was nominated for the FIFA World Player Of The Year. After going three league games without scoring, Villa contributed two goals towards Valencia's 4–1 victory against Villarreal on 17 January 2010, the first of his two goals became his 100th league goal with Valencia. Another brace came against Getafe on 22 February 2010, the second goal being "a superb chip" (as described by ESPN) over Jordi Codina. On 18 March, Valencia went to the Weserstadion to play Werder Bremen in the Europa League. Villa scored a hat-trick, his third goal being of note, which was fired in from eight yards out. The match ended 4–4 while Valencia proceeded to the next round on away goals. On May 4, 2010, Valencia played Xerez, Villa did not start but came on as a substitute 62 minutes into the match, which ended 3-1. Valencia still had two more games to play in the league, however, Villa did not feature, making the game against Xerez
the last time he played for Valencia. On 19 May 2010, Barcelona reached an agreement with Valencia, for the acquisition of Villa for the fee of €40 million. It was also reported that Manchester United made an "11th hour bid" for the player after Valencia chairman Manuel Llorente claimed that his club received a "significant offer from England that was not Chelsea." Villa signed on a four year contract with Barcelona, with the option for a fifth, worth a reported €7 million per season and thus, managed to follow in the footsteps of his heroes, Luis Enrique and Quini, both of whom, like Villa, started out at Sporting Gijón and ended up at Barcelona. On 21 May 2010, over 35,000 Barcelona supporters packed into Camp Nou to see Villa's presentation, where he revealed the kit Barcelona would use during the 2010-11 season. He was given his favourite number 7, a number which had been free at the club since Eiður Guðjohnsen left in 2009.. An occasional member of the Under 21 team, Villa marked his international debut under Luis Aragonés on 9 February 2005 in a 2006 World Cup Qualifier where Spain beat San Marino 5–0 at the Estadio del Mediterráneo while his first international goal came in the form of a
Barcelona
International career
World Cup 2006