Villa's display at Euro 2008 set the world alight. Little surprise he's one of the most chased strikers in world football today
David Villa has everything. Well, almost everything. He's not especially strong, he's not powerful and he's not tall but he has everything else.
Fast, clever, skilful, tidy in possession and tough, he is the complete striker. Brilliant finishing with either feet, whether it's slotting it home or belting one in from the half way line on the turn, as he did against Deportivo, whether it's hitting a curler from the edge of the area, bundling one off his knee or dribbling round the whole team, he is never less than deadly.
Began his career at his beloved Sporting Gijón, scoring 18 then 20 in his first two seasons in the first team, 2001-02 and 2002-03, before moving to Real Zaragoza. Despite playing in a struggling side, he got 31 league goals over the next two seasons and moved on to Valencia for €12m. It was an absolute bargain and he hit 25 goals in his first season, whilst also taking all the club's corners and free kicks, being involved in their every attack. Constantly on the move, he drags defences all over the place and them moves in for the kill.
He reached 100 league goals in just 183 league games: imagine what he could have done at Real Madrid or Barcelona. After all, despite his first 20 caps invariably being brief cameos, he's running at better than a goal every other game for Spain, scoring everything from volleys to headers to solo classics. Finished Euro 2008 as top scorer. Not many Spaniards were too surprised.