Villa-Villa-Villa, Villa Maravilla! Road to recovery begins for Spain’s ‘Kid’

David Villa is not the most controversial of footballers. If you’re the type of fan that likes his players a little rough around the edges, or the type for whom players only register when they do something out of the ordinary the Barcelona striker may rarely even register.

Barcelona’s stroll to yet another trophy has come at a price. David Villa suffered a broken leg in Barca’s semi-final win over Al Sadd and is expected to be out for around four to five months.

Try as they might, the hypemasters’ attempts to turn the Club World Cup into a Streetfighter II Turbo duel between two men – Lionel Messi and Neymar – failed. It failed for many reasons, the same reasons it fails whenever the powers that be try to water El Clasico down to a Messi/Ronaldo joust, and for the same reasons the ‘who was the greatest player ever’ debate between Pele and Maradona fails to provide anything other than evidence that the person asking has run out of topics of conversation.

Tempting as it may be to indulge in these individual comparisons, they rarely if ever work in football for a simple reason. Football is a team game. Barcelona is more than just Lionel Messi (although it may not look that way at times). Xavi, Iniesta, Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Pedro – Barcelona is a constellation of stars that shine like few others in the history of the game, a finger in the eye to the idea that football can be portrayed as a showdown between two star players. David Villa is part of that all-star cast, and his injury highlighted the flaw in the hypemasters’ designs.

Hugely admired in Spain not just for his goalscoring prowess but also for his humility and personable nature, the broken leg Villa suffered during Barcelona’s Club World Cup victory over Al-Sadd came as a blow to both club and national team. An operation was successfully completed early in the week and Villa, nicknamed ‘el Guaje’ is expected to miss around five months of action, putting his place in the Spain squad for Euro 2012 in jeopardy. “The chances (of him playing this season) are slim, but it cannot be ruled out,” said Dr. Ramon Cugat, one of the doctors who performed the operation. “The timetable of four to five months is tight, yet there is hope. He has his goal to reach.”

Villa was flown back to Barcelona in the company of his family and watched his team’s 4-0 victory over Santos from his hospital bed. The extent of the 30-year-old’s popularity was shown in the reaction to his misfortune. Villa received phone calls from his closest friends in the Barca team as well as messages of support from almost the entire travelling party in Japan.

The Spanish national team doctor Juan José García Cota also visited him in hospital and not only did Barcelona’s players salute Villa with commemorative shirts and messages reading “Mucha fuerza Guaje”, but he was also in the thoughts of his former club Valencia. During their La Liga game against Malaga last weekend his ex-compadres also wore shorts reading “Ànim Guaje” in support of the striker who scored 107 goals in 166 league games for Los Che.

Villa’s down-to-earth personality is part of what makes him so well-loved not only in the Catalan capital and Valencia but also in Asturias, the northern region of Spain from where he originates. Son of a miner and born in a mining town, Villa remains close to his roots despite becoming the multi-millionaire celebrity he is today (his contract at Barca is reportedly worth around €7 million per season). The people of Asturias look upon ‘El Guaje’ as like a proud son and the first thing he did after Spain’s World Cup 2010 winning celebrations was travel back home to unwind in the region.

Villa’s playing time at Barcelona may have been reduced lately but his importance to the squad both in terms of raw ability and squad harmony should not be underestimated. He remains a striker of precision, skill and devastating killer instinct. To prove it, and in tribute to “el Guaje” – the kid – here’s a reminder of exactly what he offers with all of his goals in a Barca shirt in the 2010/2011 season.

Mucha fuerza Guaje – we hope to see you in Poland and Ukraine.

(Photo credit: barca news on Flickr)

David Villa, Euro 2012, FC Barcelona, Spain, Spanish Primera Division