News that Atletico Madrid only had to pay £4.5m to sign David Villa from Barcelona seems like one of the best pieces of transfer business we are likely to see this summer. For Spain’s all-time top scorer, and still relatively young striker, to leave Catalonia for such a low fee is a real bargain for the Madrid based club, who are looking to replace Radamel Falcao. Why is he such a good player and what are Atletico going to get from him?
In his first season after leaving Valencia to join the Spanish giants, Villa was in his usual impressive form and scored 18 goals in 34 league appearances, helping Barcelona to La Liga and Champions League glory. The 2011/2012 campaign began in a similar way but was soon to end prematurely for Villa. He broke his leg in a Club World Cup match against Al Sadd and was ruled out for the entire season.
After returning from such a serious injury, he had to bide his time to be given a chance in the first team. In the eight months that he had been unavailable, other players had been given chances to take his position and it proved difficult for Tito Vilanova to incorporate him into his starting eleven. He did manage 28 league appearances and 10 goals; although on many of these occasions he was coming off the bench as a substitute for either Alexis Sanchez or Pedro.
Now that he has joined Atletico he will be keen to claim the regular No 9 role; something that he was unable to do at Barcelona because of the importance of Lionel Messi and the Argentine’s undoubted quality in the central striking position. Everywhere that he has played, he has guaranteed goals, as fans of Valencia, Zaragoza and Sporting Gijon can testify. Decent with both feet, excellent movement and positioning skills, and still considered dangerous enough to be selected in Spain’s squad for the Confederations Cup, I am sure that he can prove to be a big success if given the full backing and trust of his manager. Perhaps he still has an eye on the World Cup next year and believes that he has a greater chance of getting there if he can have a good season in Spain.