Hassan Chamas
The first time I had ever heard of the name “David Villa” was in 2004. Back then, I was watching the Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Real Zaragoza, when this 23 year-old chipped in a goal past Los Blancos to deny them cup delight, an award that has been absent from their lockers since 1993. The “Al-Jazeera” commentator speedily praised the Asturian-born striker, making it seem like he’s telling the viewers a translation of the phrase “David Villa folks, remember the name!”
After another season spent at Zaragoza, Valencia decided to lay a wager on this little known player and ship him to the Mestalla. And what a revelation he turned out to be, as the forward has since managed to slot more than 65 competitive goals in for Los Che, making him one of their biggest star assets.
After a glorious Euro 2008 campaign – a contest that he finished as top goalscorer – David Villa has been in illustrious form for Valencia since the start of the season. Whatever effect the mythical Super Cup loss to Real Madrid left was all but drained down the sink in the last couple of weeks, as “El Guaje” has since been scoring, week in and week out, to eventually pin his team in pole position in the league standings, one point apart from seconds FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Since the start of the new league campaign, David Villa has been – in my opinion at least – the preeminent striker in all of Europe. An impressive nine goals in eight games, coupled with some memorable displays for the Spanish national team has propelled David Villa to the top of the most desirable forwards in all of the Old Continent.
In terms of statistics, only Wigan’s Amr Zaki and Fiorentina’s Alberto Gilardino can compare to the Spanish forward, each of whom bagged seven goals in eight games. While the numbers can sound somewhat the same, let’s face the palpable truth: Alberto Gilardino is nowhere near Villa when the latter’s in his prime form, while Premier League newcomer Amr Zaki enters his first season as a professional in Europe, and even though talks have been high on the Egyptian – he was recently linked to Real Madrid – it is somewhere premature – if not foolish – to place him in the same category as Villa, Didier Drogba, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Villa on the other hand, has been a striker of great reputable for almost four years now. Since his first season with Real Zaragoza, not once has he ended a league campaign with less than fifteen goals. He also became a Spanish regular under former coach Luis Aragones during the World Cup of 2006 and last summer’s Euro, a pattern that is set to continue under the helm of Vicente del Bosque.
Under the leadership of new coach Unai Emery, Valencia have been in sublime form, to say the least. As things stand, the sky’s the limit for them, with the only thing missing counted as being denied Champions League action after a catastrophic preceding season. But to proclaim them the new pillar for an about-to-be-born tripod in Spanish football would be shooting for the moon. After all, they are only leading the race by a mere point at the time of writing. And while their current form suggests that first position is theirs to lose, proclaiming them as league champions after a little more than a fifth of a season would be madness.
Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon could be bashing his head against the wall. Every time he has seen Villa evade his marker and score another one, as he sees just what he has missed when playing the cat and mouse game that is the Cristiano Ronaldo affair all summer long. After all, Villa had just returned home holding the Henri Delaunay Trophy, and with Valencia’s growing debts, sparkling some Euros on such a player wouldn’t be regarded as the deadliest of sins. After all, you couldn’t find a more perfect replacement for the ageing Raul than David Villa could you?
The reasons behind Villa and Santi Cazorla’s last minute snubs of the Real Madrid offers this past summer, after the reigning champions went on a last-minute shopping fee, remain murky. Whether the players in question considered it as career suicide at that point, or Madrid’s failure to land Ronaldo cost Los Merengues lots of points in terms of team reputation, we can never be sure. One thing’s for certain, though, a move or not, El Guaje couldn’t have been in better form this time around. Before the season started, I nominated him to be this year’s Pichichi winner in a season preview, a task that he has been steadily fulfilling up to this very moment.
Nonetheless, Villa is not a one man club, so a career “A la Maldini” does seem a little farfetched for a player who has so much to prove. After choosing to miss out on the Bernabeu train last summer, Villa’s chances of top-club football are declining by the season. It would be shameful for such a player to have such a tiny array of accolades. Even though he thoughtfully chose to decline a Real Madrid invitation, the player should consider other offers – as soon as this summer – and move on to a better club that suits such a talented player. Though Los Che faithful won’t thank me for saying so.
