David Villa leaves Atlético for American adventure

Villa signs with New York City

Posted by on June 2nd, 2014 in Transfers -

david villa atletico madrid

Villa celebrates a goal (ibtimes.com)

Amidst rumours linking most of our stars with transfers away from the Vicente Calderón, David Villa was surprisingly the first to announce his departure.

On Sunday the Asturian announced in a video on the club’s YouTube channel that he’s leaving Atlético Madrid to join New York City in the MLS.

You can watch the video with English captions to see for yourself how the 32-year old tells about the fantastic season he’s had in red and white.

Villa, who was on €6m a year, was Atleti’s highest earner in club history. We have been told the cap space opening up due to his departure will be used to finance a new deal for his partner in crime, Diego Costa.

Earlier this week Villa received the good news that he has been called up by national team coach Vicente Del Bosque. Spain’s all time topscorer will represent La Roja at the World Cup along with his (former) teammates Juanfran, Koke and Diego Costa.


  • Zakaria

    Fantastic season, thank you Villa, best of luck in the USA.

    Who do you think will be his replacement?

  • Chewie

    Any decent striker will do. Leo, in-form Adrian, maybe Correa or someone from the outside.

    http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2014/05/30/4850410/atletico-fans-launch-viral-campaign-to-stop-soldado-signing – lol, I’m in!

  • sajedeh

    Wow i think you are the luckiest fans in the world that can be fan of such a great team!!! Yeah atletico was the best team i,ve ever supported. It showed me real love! Red and white was the most beautiful color l,ve ever seen. In my country just real madrid and barca games were shown on tv and i couldn,t see atletic games at all but every night we had a game i was here to read what,s happening in game. I think my heart was all red and white… guys i,m very sorry for my recent coments . I think i was very nervous. Please forgive me. It,s very bad ican,t stop crying i still want to stay red and white but i can,t…

  • Rowly

    I suspect we’ll give Leo Baptistao a chance, along with the new lad I guess when he arrives. I do worry about cover for Diego Costa (assuming he stays) though so would like an out & out striker to join.

  • Jeronamo

    Hmmmm….

  • sam

    If we use the space to hold onto Costa, its really important that we keep a strong finesse forward at the top as well. Whether that’s Leo or Correa, or if Adrian continues his reawakening, we will need someone for when teams have defensive answers for Costa’s more bullish style of play.

    And apparently with the cash we’ll be handing Costa, I’d be surprised if we shell out for another big name on the market. So hopefully one of these fellows gets it done.

  • starvs

    You can do whatever you damn well please Sajedeh, it’s an inclusive group.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    When you are 32 or 33 like Villa & Tiago, I can understand the phrase “an offer I can’t refuse” .. just like Villa said in his farewell message

    BUT when you are still under 30 and the club that gave you everything is offering you an extra one or two million above the 3 million you are already earning and they are asking you to stay for just one or two more seasons and you say NO because you want to “secure” you future or to seek a “bigger challenge” .. bigger than playing against Real & Barca 11 times in one season, bigger than winning Copa del Rey in the Bernabeu and winning La Liga in Camp Nou, then, my friend, you make it very fucking hard to have any respect or appreciation for you, no matter how much you gave the club, because the club has given you 10 times more .. and the fans have given you 20 times more, and -unlike you- they didn’t earn a penny, on the contrary, they paid a big portion of your salary

    Just like Simeone & Gil, I don’t want any player to stay against his will
    But except Villa & Tiago who are at the end of their careers, and Courtois who doesn’t have his own decision, I will never say Gracias or even Goodbye to anyone who leaves while the club do not WANT or NEED to sell him.

    #GraciasGuaje
    it was just one season with Atleti against too many seasons with Gijon, Zaragoza, Valencia & Barca, but for me, you will always be a Rojiblanco

    *Chewie : I am in too .. #UnAtletiSinSoldado

  • Ringo S. T. Gambo remember me

    Sometimes people want different challenges though

    I would never love any club like Atleti, but I too would view it as a great excuse to travel
    And even if La Liga might be the best, I can’t deny it would be lovely to play in BPL as well

    And who knows, maybe all the extra money goes to charity

    Let’s say we’d be CL champions next year, then I would understand it if for example Koke would want to play in Germany, Italy, England, whatever.
    I don’t really see him leaving any time soon though 🙂

  • Ali

    @ahmed there are still players above 32 in the world who play football not money ball! The likes andrea pirlo , didier drogba who have rejected high wages to play at top level.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    @Ringo :
    I also can understand if some player decided to leave the “biggest” challenge to try a “different” challenge .. despite how strange it sounds

    But I was very clear, also was the club :
    we don’t want them to stay until they retire at Atleti, we just want them to stay for just two more seasons, or just one more season in the case of Costa, then next season he will be 26 and will still have at least 7 years to play wherever he wants

    is that too much to ask ?!

    and “maybe all the extra money goes to charity” !!
    my friend, you are a very nice guy
    I don’t want to sound like a hater or envious or ungrateful, but most of footballers these days earn multi millions and they make a very big noise when they donate a couple of thousands
    I will never expect any player to donate “the extra millions” he will earn to charity, especially that every now and then we hear about a footballer who committed a tax fraud
    and especially if the “different” challenge for which the player chose to leave Atleti, the champions of La Liga is Fenerbahçe !!!

    Please my friend, do not take this personally :
    I ask all the fans to not be naive .. “bigger challenge”, “different challenge” and “new culture” are just bullshit .. it is money.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    @Ali : I would not put Drogba in that list
    the man went to China because he was offered a huge contract, then when Shanghai didn’t pay him what they promised he left after just 7 months for Turkey, where the clubs also pay a lot of money and violate the Financial Fair Play Rules and every season a couple of them get sanctioned by UEFA

  • Chewie

    How about Di Natale who started scoring 20+ goals right after he turned 32? Being on a 1.3 million euro salary.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    Di Natale should be number one on that list !

    I never understood why the Italians are the most loyal ones,
    There are too many of them, not just those who played for big clubs and won big and many trophies like Maldini, Del Piero, Buffon, Ambrosini, Nesta, Gattuso and many others, but also those who play for relatively smaller teams and win few trophies like Di Natale and Totti who has won just 1 League, 2 Cups and zero European Cups but he never left Roma, not even when he had offers from Real & Man Utd

    They even “infected” players from other nationalities like Zanetti, Shevchenko, Cambiasso & Seedorf who stayed for very long time with their clubs

    I wish we know what is their secret so maybe we can do what they do !!

  • Yon

    Ahmad agreed about the loyalty of Totti, Del Piero and De Rossi etc but they also in Italy have the most players who are club whores and have played for all the teams!

  • Ali

    @ahmed drogba deserves some credit after China’s move he was offered high wage salary from MLS and from japan but he chose to play on top level in Europe.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    I forgot to ask :
    did we make any money from Villa’s transfer ?!
    I remember that we bought 50 % of his rights, while Barca kept the other 50, so did they both get anything, because everybody is talking about a free transfer ?!!

    I find that hard to believe, because we only paid Barca 2 million (it was a 5 million deal if Villa completed 3 seasons with us, but that didn’t happen) + the first refusal rights for Barca of 3 of our players (their identities were not released)

    So, practically, Barca have sold Villa for just 2 million .. very bad business if it was true

  • starvs

    I wonder the same Ahmad, I have heard some say his contract was up after this year, but that can’t be as his initial transfer had stipulations for additional years, couldn’t be the case if he was gonna be a free agent.

    This is part of the Man City group, so hopefully they overpaid…

  • Rowly

    He signed a rolling contract that either party could terminate at the end of each season, so Villa was a free agent this summer. The deal we agreed with Barca was an initial payment of £2.1m then further payments for each season he re-signed.

  • Farzad From IRan

    Its not so bad news for us because villa didnt play so good and if we buy soldado and not miss flipe and godin!!!!!!!!!we can continue our champions!!!!!!!!!!

  • palestine-atletico

    I want to know wtf mourinho wants from us…
    Costa, tiago, godin, filipe,courtois and koke!!!
    I hope he will get no players.

  • Jeronamo

    @Ahmad I don’t disagree with you often but that bit about players and their reasons for leaving a club solely because of money is a bit incorrect. Of course they are some or dare I say most that do things like that but there is no way you can speak for every single one. That’s like saying every man/woman is thr same, some people have families to think about, being comfortable or just a change of scenery. Unless a player disrespects a club he has left then a supporter should just respect his decision to go after he has done what he has to for the club

  • Chewie

    @Palestine-Atletico Well, he certainly can have Courtois if he wants and probably get Costa as well. Koke and Filipe are a no-no, so is – hopefully – Godin. Isn’t it clear wtf he wants? He wants a big chunk of a team who conquered the league and almost won the CL. But I have a feeling we won’t sell much. The board is very determined to keep the players unless we get an extraordinary offer.

  • Will

    Agree with @CHEWIE, I don’t think we’ll sell more than Costa and Miranda.
    It’ll be enough to build a stronger team for next season.

  • Ali

    So I guess insua is leaving and guilherme siqueira is coming. My tears won’t stop if he’s filipes replacement!

  • Silchas

    I think Filipe is leaving, because Atleti will not pay 10Million for someone to replace Insua, who had but a couple of games this season.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    @Jeronamo : I wish you disagree with me more often, because I love logic and fruitful discussions
    my friend, I never said “all” players .. except when I was replying to Ringo when he said “maybe all the extra money goes to charity”, in that case I meant everyone, and not just footballers, but in every other career, no one would donate half of his salary to charity except very few people all around the world
    I’m not even sure if Ringo was serious or just joking
    in transfer windows I lose my sense of humor !

    But I insist that anyone leaves this summer while the club needs him is unfaithful and ungrateful
    once again, we are not asking for too much, just stay for one more season, so we can keep the skeleton of the team, so we can send a message to Europe that we are not Ajax or Porto or Arsenal, we are not a selling club so fuck off and leave our players alone

    Never forget that we haven’t signed a replacement for Falcao yet !
    Villa was not his replacement, we knew that but he cost us just 2 million so we said why not
    Now what will we do without Falcao, Villa, and maybe Costa ?!

    We already need another LB beside Filipe because Insua is not that good and he will probably leave, so if Filipe left we will need 2 LBs

    The club need those player to stand by its side just like it stood by theirs
    just like they made Miranda a world-class defender after he was just an ordinary player in Sao Paulo that nobody heard about
    just like they were very patient about Filipe when he had a long injury
    just like they kept giving Costa chance after chance to prove himself, and just like they chose him over Salvio when we had only one non-European spot

    We need them to return the favor, by just staying one more season and signing new deals with bigger clauses, and we will pay them more and promise them to let them leave next season

    And in Costa case it is even more simple, the club has stopped asking him to stay and in the last few days they were asking him to JUST DECIDE
    if he has decided earlier maybe we could have signed Immobile, but now BVB got him

    So, Jeronamo, in my opinion, leaving the club in this time and these circumstances
    is a disrespect for the club and for the fans

    Call me aggressive or emotional, but anyone leaves this summer while we want him to stay (except the old Villa & Tiago and the loanee Courtois) will be dead to me

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    @Chewie : I don’t know what you mean with “no-no” about Filipe
    do you mean that you don’t want him to leave, or that he is not leaving,
    because he is leaving, he made it very clear,
    just like Godin, Arda, Koke & Juanfran made it very clear that they are staying

    so you and Will should add Filipe to your list of departures, beside Costa & Miranda
    and never forget Tiago, Villa & Courtois

    That’s not few sellings Will, for club like us that only depend on 14 players, that is half of the team .. but the better half is staying

    So, I agree with you, we will have a stronger team next season, with our loaness we only need not great but just good striker, good LB, and just a “normal” GK, not a clown like Aranzubia, Leo Franco or Coupet !

    @Ali : when a player decide to leave the champions of La Liga to join a small club like Chelsea he doesn’t deserve a single tear from you

  • ali_

    Ahmad: i really love reading your stuff but i was like ‘WTF’ after reading this last post from u.
    u have never been so irrational i think.
    “we need them return a favor…”
    footbally players dont give a shit about that anymore, or at least very few of them (for example juanfran).
    its all about the paycheck now. and the ones like filipe (who really gave their all for the team) could also think that “man, i was like the best LB in spain, i think i payed my debt”.

    dont get me wrong, finally villa left, but i dont really want more players to leave especially filipe, who is one of my fav. but its likely that some of them say goodbye.

  • Atletico- Palestine

    Officially Filipe to Chelsea , siqueira to atletico… I am not happy so far with transfers… Prepare yourself guys: goodbuys to villa, costa, Filipe, Miranda, tiago and Koke.. I hope am wrong

  • Ali

    @ahmed I’m totally convinced that filipe will stay he’s best friend with arda so if arda is not leaving then filipe isn’t leaving as well! They both are so close friends that filipe raised turkeys flag in camp nou instead of Brazilian flag.

  • Ali

    And besides some miracle happen and then they decided to leave I have just one thing to say to them
    ” money don’t buy you happiness”

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    @Ali_ :
    I said we want them to return the favor, but I never said I expect them to !
    I said in previous posts what you said : “it’s all about the paycheck now”

    so actually, you and I are on the same side,
    you don’t disagree with me, you disagree with Jeronamo and Ringo 😉

    But yet, there are some players who decided to return the favor,
    almost all of our regular players had offers .. big offers, but some of them rejected them like Arda, Godin, Juanfran, and koke

    And if you was like “WTF” because I asked them to stay to return the favor, I wonder what would you be like about what the other Ali said, “Filipe will stay because he is a good friend with Arda” !!

    @Palestine-Atletico :
    how many time should Koke say “I’m not leaving” to believe him ?!
    the kid is staying, not just for next season, but for too many seasons, maybe even for all his career
    the only way I can say Koke leave Atleti is if we got a crazy offer, and I’m not talking about Falcao-crazy or Cavani-crazy, I’m talking about Neymar-crazy and Bale-crazy offers !

  • Ringo S. T. Gambo remember me

    I wasn’t saying they do, but most football players I don’t know outside of football, like I kinda think it should be, so I think it’d be idiotic to judge them and their decisions because no matter how big the chances, it’s pretty much uncertain what their intentions are with certain moves.
    Costa has been in Spain for 6-7 years, so it’s possible he wants another culture, whatever, around him. Although with him preferring Spain over Brasil makes me doubtful about that.

    Just trying to say, if 99999 out of 100000 people are money slaves, doesn’t mean they all are.
    Maybe he is, but i dont know so I just won’t rule out him being that one or whoever else.

    Nothing to do with naivety, just observing the fact that no matter how close, 99% is not a hundred. And a few barking dogs don’t make the whole pack screamy bishes.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    well said Ringo,
    I guess we all agree in principle, but the difference is that some people like you and Jeronamo have great manners and refuse to speak ill of the 99% so they don’t accidently hurt the innocent 1%, while others like myself are just not that nice !

    But I believe that football needs both types of fans

    Again, please don’t be offended by that “naivety” thing I mentioned earlier

  • Yon

    Koke won’t leave, simple as that!

    If Miranda and Filipe leave, I will be hurt but I will not hold a grudge because I cannot blame them, they are constantly ignored for Brazil, and missing out on the World Cup after the season they have had will hurt them, I am sure they are thinking La Liga champions, best defensive record in Europe and a CL final at this club WHAT ELSE DO WE HAVE TO DO HERE? They must be thinking a move to the PL will get them noticed and maybe do something internationally before they retire(get picked for next Copa America or whatveer! (do not accuse me of saying Chelsea or the Premier League are better than Atleti or La Liga cause I never would, just it seems players from our club are ignored by certain international coaches)

    I am also glad all the business is hopefully getting done now before pre-season, which hopefully allows any new signings to gel! Also means we are not rushing about or panic buying towards the end of the transfer window!

  • Chewie

    @Ahmad both, actually – I didn’t want Filipe to leave and was sure he wouldn’t. But if he does, I can’t blame him.

    Just think about it – without SImeone the team wouldn’t have had such an extraordinary season, we’d probably try a couple of other coaches and finished up selling our players anyway, maybe this year, maybe next. But without the success we had this year they would cost much, much less.

  • TOMMYNESTOR7

    @Ahmad.. I agree with u with most u said, i mean i can understand tiago, villa and even diego wants to go
    and i can understand even miranda and filipe they wanna leave cause they all are at least 29 and more years old
    but i cant understand 2 things:
    1) why diego costa wants to leave, he is still a young player and are still developing not yet a complete player
    not even a complete person yet! so for me if he goes to chelsea, just like Ahmad said he is dead to me just like
    aguero is… maybe even more
    2) second thing is why our board dont sign a bigger realese clause when they sign contract with players
    for example: why they didnt set a release claus for filipe luis lets say 40m and they would be in more sure position!
    BTW i think koke will not leave us for sure along with juanfran, gabi, rg8, adrian, godin, mario surarez, arda and with our young loans and with few more signings WE WOULD BE STRONGER THEN EVER!!!
    OUR BIGGEST WEAPON IS EL CHOLO… AS LONG HE IS HERE IAM NOT WORRING ABOUT NOTHING

  • gechicean

    According to Marca we just signed Moya from Granada. I don’t know much about this GK. Is he any good?

  • Adnan Khan

    The official atletico madrid website confirmed the moya buy too. I guess courtois is leaving.

  • AaX

    ATLETICO HAVE PROVEN ITSELF TO BE THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE.AND THE UPHOLDER OF THE TRUE IDEALS OF FOOTBALL. SIMPLE ! WE ACCEPT ONLY THIS SPECIAL KIND OF PLAYERS AND PEOPLE BECAUSE HEAVEN HAVE DESTINED OUR ROLE TO BE THIS SPECIAL. LORD WILL HAVE HIS SAY.

  • AaX

    WHAT IS the Meaning of our ‘Triumph’ when commitment towards its stable continuity is ceased or abandoned now that we have Our Manager. Acknowledging trends of the choeces of current players does not translate in determining that it is Right to the Original Ideals of this Game.

    Just understand the meaning of this qoute :
    Aragones : You Have 55,000 people out there that will die for you. Now you will die playing for them !

    THIS IS ATLETICO, THIS IS OUR CREED, THIS IS OUR BLOOD. AND THIS IS OUR PEOPLE.

    COURAGE FORGE LEGENDS.

    Forza Atleti

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    @TOMMYNESTOR7 : The answer for your question is very easy, you can not make a player sign a big clause without offering him a big salary

    if you want a player like Filipe to sign a 40 million clause you need to offer him 6 or 7 million, and if you want Costa to sign a 70 million clause you need to offer him 10 million as a salary

    and there is also another reason, if the agent is Jorge Mendes