Valencia striker David Villa has dropped the biggest hint yet that he is ready to swap La Liga for the Premier League. The prolific Spaniard has been linked with Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City persistently for the best part of 18-months, and the forward suggests he has always maintained a keen interest in England’s top tier.
Last week his international colleague Fernando Torres urged Liverpool’s under-fire American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks to sign David Villa from Valencia this summer, while Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City have all been linked with the player, who is expected to be one of the best players on show at the World Cup in June.
Villa continues to score goals for fun in La Liga, and during the last decade he has never scored less than fifteen goals a season, and he currently leads the Pichichi goal scoring charts again. Last summer cash-strapped Valencia effectively ended Premier League interest in their player by placing a valuation in excess of £50 million on the striker, and although Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea were all rumoured to have formally approached the club, nothing concrete arose from their overtures. A deal to take the player to Barcelona also fell through, yet Villa intimates he is ready to move his young family to England where he admits he has many friends already, which will undoubtedly keep the playing staff at Anfield extremely interested.
The Premier League target is quoted by the Madrid based daily AS: “In the summer I had my own reasons for staying in Spain. Basically, my wife had to give birth first.”
“But this time it will be different and I’ll analyse it again.”
“I like the Premier League a lot. There are a lot of very important teams in England, who play very good football.”
“It’s the league I follow the most, along with La Liga – and I’ve got a lot of friends playing there.”