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The death of the Euro snob: What Villa means to the A-League

David Villa will soon trade the red and white stripes of Atletico Madrid for those of Melbourne City. (Source: Wiki Commons)
Expert
5th June, 2014
81
3660 Reads

Erm, so this just happened: “Melbourne City can today announce that Spanish World Cup winner David Villa will join the club for a period of the Hyundai A-League 2014-15 season.”

For those of you who aren’t up to speed on this fella, he’s a bloke that soccered for Barcelona for three years, picked up a World Cup trophy four years ago and played in the Champions League final last month.

Yep, kind of a big deal.

Villa will play with the rebranded Melbourne City for 10 games before moving to his new home in New York later in the year.

While we’ve had this sort of excitement a few times since the A-League’s inception – think Dwight Yorke, Emile Heskey, Alessandro Del Piero and co. – things are a little more stimulating this time around.

» BREAKING: David Villa signs A-League deal, Melbourne Heart change name to Melbourne City
» Melbourne City: The fight for a name

The A-League has developed the tag as the retirement village of world football, an inarguable jibe considering most of the previous marquees have come down under at the twilight of their careers.

Alessandro Del Piero’s success – only minutely hampered by his weary legs at the latter stages of last season – did a great service to dispel that theory.

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But Villa isn’t here to wind down the clock. He bagged 13 league goals in Atletico Madrid’s historic La Liga-winning campaign in the 2013/14 season and is expected to be at the fore as Spain look to defend their crown in Brazil this month.

What we’ve come to learn from the A-League’s turnover of stars is that success can only be measured by the perfect balance of on-field and off-field success.

Villa promises to bring both. His name will be in lights for the three months or so that he’s here and, if his exploits in Spain over the last 15 years are any indication, he will speak even louder on the pitch.

Melbourne City (nee Heart) have often been berated for their following and they’ve been forced to  bear the brunt of the unwanted ‘little brothers’ tag to Melbourne Victory.

But Melbourne’s population quashes suggestions that there isn’t room for two teams in the A-League. The ‘other’ Melbourne team just failed to break into the market sufficiently until this point.

Yes, we’re looking at you, Euro snobs. We all know one or two of them. The naysayers that are yet to latch onto the hype of the A-League. ADP didn’t get them. Western Sydney Wanderers didn’t get them. Heskey, Gallas, Melbourne Heart didn’t get them.

But dangling one of Europe’s most potent strikers in front of their eyes should do the trick.

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Certainly, Melbourne City’s new owners have kicked off their tenure in style. It’s hard to see many other clubs having the cash to lure marquee players still in their prime, but this is another beacon of light the A-League needs to keep shining.

Heads have slowly turned over the last few years, as clubs and players throw the kitchen sink to attract new fans in a saturated market.

It’s a gradual process, we can’t expect Andres Iniesta to play in Australia within two years, but the A-League will be put on show for ten matches, with Villa very much still in the global gaze.

There are sure to be plenty of Barcelona fans in Melbourne that are yet to pledge their loyalty to City or Victory, and hopefully this is the push they need.

We’re here to play, amigos. Bienvenido, David!

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