David Villa is a true champion

As some readers pointed out (¡gracias!), David Villa provided some major updates to his Facebook page yesterday, after having abandoned it for two months.  Here is what he said about the national team, I love that he wrote a special message of support for Pepe Reina!

– what can I say to you about the World Cup!  It was the most important moment of my career, not only for the achievement such a great sporting success but also for being able to make the fans of Spain so happy.  The reception in Madrid was incredible, as was the affection I received in Asturias, in Barcelona, and in the entire country.  I’ll never forget it.  Thank you very much!

– we have just returned from playing with the national team after a few strange days.  Everything went well in the game against Liechtenstein.  It was important to begin the qualification for the Eurocopa on a good foot and we played well and scored.  Everything according to plan!  Things weren’t so good with Argentina…

– even though it was a friendly, it was an important game because the Argentine national team is a daunting opponent that always wants to play well.  They did play very well, but I also believe we didn’t play too badly either.  The team always shows up, Cazorla hit the post once, and me twice, and we had a lot of opportunities, but the result was pretty painful.

– I would like to send out a big hug and a message of support to my friend Reina.  He didn’t have luck on Tuesday, but he is without doubt one of the best goalkeepers in the world and he’s also an incredible person and a great friend.  He’s done a lot for this group in the last few years and I’m sure he’ll continue to show his quality with the national team for a long time.

– another thing I want to tell you is how happy receiving the Príncipe de Asturias award as a member of the national team has made me.  I’m thrilled to be able to win it with such an exceptional group, and also for the link it has to my home province.

The message for Pepe wasn’t the only nice thing that David Villa did.  As you know, he comes from a mining family (his father, several uncles, grandfather and great-grandfather were all miners), and so he knows first hand about the suffering that that can cause.  Thus, the story of the 33 trapped miners in Chile touched him deeply and he decided to send two signed jerseys to the miners.  The one on the right says, “keep your spirits up, miners!” to which David added, “a lot of strength and encouragement (mucha fuerza y muchos ánimos).