The Asturian striker played the last 40 minutes of Spain’s friendly with Saudi Arabia, and scored a penalty to add to his record goalscoring tally
The goal makes Villa the fourth highest active international goalscorer
FC Barcelona’s David Villa played his first international football for 10 months on Friday evening against Saudi Arabia, and was able to celebrate with a goal, scored from the penalty spot in the 62 minute. That was his 52nd goal for his country, further extending what is already a Spanish record. But just as importantly, the game gave Villa another opportunity to get back into his playing rhythm and hopefully start finding the same kind of form that was serving FC Barcelona so well before he got injured.
Villa made his reappearance against Dinamo Bucharest in the first friendly of the preseason following an eight-month absence through injury. His first official match was the league opener against Real Sociedad, when he came on for Pedro with a quarter of an hour to go, and found the net after just ten minutes, scoring the fifth and final goal of the night. A week later in Pamplona, he also came on as a late substitute against Osasuna, this time without scoring. Between friendlies and official matches, the Asturian has played a total of 120 matches this season.
4th in international ranking
David Villa’s 52nd goal in 82 appearances for Spain makes him the fourth highest scoring international still on active duty. He is only bettered by Klose (Germany), Drogba (Ivory Coast) and Keane (Ireland). But Villa is second when counting goals by their frequency. His record of 0.62 goals per game is only beaten by Drogba’s 0.63 goals per game.