The 2011-2012 season was a rough one for David Villa, who missed the entire second half of the campaign after an injury he picked in the Club World Cup. Juventus have been interested in Villa before, and have renewed it. Paris Saint-Germain are just after everyone these days, including Villa.
Chasing a 30 year old striker who’s just recovered from a broken tibia might not sound like the wisest idea in the world, but Villa has been one of the more productive strikers in Europe over the last 10 years, scoring 240 goals in 465 matches since the 2001-2002 season for his clubs (Sprting Gijon, Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona), earning him four Zarra trophies, awarded to the highest scorer among the Spanish players in the La Liga.
He’s also been fantastic for the Spanish national team, becoming their all-time leading scorer, currently sitting at 51 goals after 82 caps. His role was changed a bit over the last couple of years, moving away from the centre of the box, especially under Guardiola, playing many times as a winger who keeps venturing into the middle. It worked rather well during his first season at the Nou Camp, scoring 18 league goals an helping Barcelona to the League – Champions League double.
What will it cost to pry him away from Barcelona, if they’re selling at all? Villa cost Barca €40 million in 2010, getting him from Valencia, signing him to a 5-year, €7 million a season contract. Rumors suggest that around €25 million should be enough this time for either Juventus or PSG to get their hands on the striker, although it’s not at all certain he wants to leave. Barcelona’s shortcoming last season were partially due to the lack of a real striker on many nights, especially the unsuccessful ones. They just might stick to the rehabilitated Villa, although the offer might be too good to turn down eventually.
After winning their first league title and on the brink of starting a season without Alessandro Del Piero for the first time in 19 years, Juventus have been quite busy in the transfer market. They signed Udinese duo Kwadwo Asamoah and Mauricio Isla for a total of €26.8 million; spent €11 million on returning Sebastian Giovinco from Parma; Young goalkeeper Nicolas Leali for €3.8 and Lucio from Inter on a free transfer, aiming to make quite an impression in their return to the Champions League after two seasons.
PSG have been busy in the rumor-mill, but their biggest bid of the summer collapsed, as Thiago Silva and AC Milan couldn’t complete the deal that was reported to be worth nearly €50 million. They did pry away another talented player from the Serie A, Ezequiel Lavezzi from Napoli, joining his Argentina national team teammate Javier Pastore, as PSG hope to finish one place higher in Ligue 1 this season while becoming a significant member of the Champions League once again.