DAVID SILVA BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY AND CAREER
David Josue Jimenez Silva born 8 January 1986 is a Spanish footballer who plays for Manchester City in England, and the Spanish national team.

Silva is capable of playing on the wing, as a traditional number 10 and sometimes as a supporting striker. He spent six years of his professional career with La Liga side Valencia CF, appearing in more than 150 official games and winning one Copa del Rey, before moving in 2010 to Manchester City.

A Spanish international since the age of 20, he was a member of the squads that won both the Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup.

Silva was born in Arguineguín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands to Fernando Jiménez, a former municipal police officer and eventually responsible for the safety of the Valencia CF stadium, and Eva Silva. His father is Canarian and his mother is of Asian descent. He has two younger siblings, sister Natalia and brother Nando.

Silva began playing football in the youth team of UD San Fernando, near Maspalomas. When he was 14, he received an offer to become a youth player at Valencia CF, which he accepted. He stayed in Valencia's youth set-up until he was 17.

Silva first represented Spain in the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland, scoring three goals. In 2006, he became an under-21 international and scored four goals during the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship; this was enough to earn him joint-fourth place in the goal ranking, alongside Italian striker Graziano Pellè.

Silva made his senior international début in the 1–0 friendly home defeat to Romania on 15 November 2006, and continued to receive call-ups to the side after good contributions in his first games. On 22 August 2007, he scored his first two goals for Spain, netting twice in a 3–2 friendly win versus Greece, and was then called-up to the squad of 23 for UEFA Euro 2008.

In the semi-finals game versus Russia, Silva scored the third goal for Spain after a quick counter-attack in which Fàbregas delivered a low cross, and he sent the ball into Igor Akinfeev's goal with his left foot. In the final, he was involved in an incident with Germany's Lukas Podolski. After he pulled Podolski to the ground, the German approached Silva, which resulted in an angry exchange of words and a coming together of heads that the referee decided not to punish. Shortly afterward, Spanish coach Luis Aragonés substituted Silva for Santi Cazorla in an attempt to calm the tensions.

After appearing regularly during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification stages – Spain won all ten fixtures – Silva was also picked for the squad for the finals in South Africa. His participation would be however a small one, as the national team won the tournament: he started in the first match, a 0–1 group stage defeat against Switzerland, then played the last four minutes of the 1–0 win against Germany in the semifinals.

On 11 August 2010, during an international friendly with Mexico, Silva scored two minutes into second-half injury time, ending the game with a 1–1 draw.

In an Euro 2012 qualifier against Liechtenstein on 3 September 2010, Silva scored after 62 minutes, in a 4–0 away win.The following month, in the same competition, he scored through a rare header, as the national team downed Lithuania in Salamanca (3–1).

In Spain's first match for 2011, an international friendly against Colombia on Feb 9, he came off the bench to score the game's only goal with just four minutes remaining, helping Spain to a hard-fought 1-0 win

DAVID SILVA PROFILE

Full name: David Josué Jiménez Silva
Date of birth: 8 January 1986
Place of birth: Arguineguín, Spain
Height: 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position: Midfielder / Winger

Club information
Current club Manchester City
Number 21

Youth career
UD San Fernando
2000–2003 Valencia

Senior career
2003–2004 Valencia B 14 (1)
2004–2010 Valencia 119 (21)
2004–2005 → Eibar (loan) 35 (5)
2005–2006 → Celta Vigo (loan) 34 (4)
2010– Manchester City 26 (3)

National team‡
2001–2002 Spain U16 6 (2)
2002–2003 Spain U17 20 (5)
2004–2005 Spain U19 14 (5)
2005 Spain U20 5 (4)
2004–2006 Spain U21 9 (7)
2006– Spain 45 (11)