David Villa is a Spanish professional soccer who plays as a striker and also serves as captain for New York City FC in Major League Soccer.
He is nicknamed El Guaje (The Kid in Austrian) because as a youngster he frequently played football with children much older than him.
Despite sustaining a serious injury as a child, Villa started his professional career with Sporting de Gijón. He moved to Real Zaragoza after two seasons, where he made his La Liga début, winning theCopa del Rey and Supercopa de España.
Villa made his international début for Spain in 2005. He has since participated in four major tournaments, becoming an integral member of the Spain teams that won Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.
He scored three goals at the 2006 World Cup, was the top scorer at Euro 2008 and earned the Silver Boot at the 2010 World Cup.
He is the first Spanish player to ever reach 50 international goals and retired from internationals after the 2014 World Cup with 59 in 97 matches, making him Spain’s all-time top goalscorer as well as the country’s top scorer in the World Cup with 9 goals.
The goals-to-games ratio he has achieved for the national team has not been matched by any player since Alfredo Di Stéfano. He is 2016 Latino Trendsetter Award Recipient.
In November 2019, Villa announced that, once he retired, he would be investing as an owner of USL Championship side Queensboro FC, based in Queens, New York City, United States. The club will begin play in 2023.
In 2021, Indian Super League club Odisha FC announced that David will be the head of Global Football Operations as well as member of the technical committee.
The Committee’s responsibility include advising the coaching staff, improving the Indian and youth players, providing general support to the on-field activities among others.
After joining the club, Villa said: “I will try to bring my experience. Obviously, I didn’t play in India but I played soccer for 20 years as a professional and before that in the academy, in all projects which my team or I, are involved in, we always try to give all we have.
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