Pablo Villanueva Fernández (born 12 April 1976), known as Villa, is a Spanish retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a forward, currently assistant manager of

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

Playing career

Born in Alcorcón,

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

, Villa finished his development with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, making his senior debut with the C team in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

after being recruited to the academy by Vicente del Bosque. Also during the 1996–97 campaign, he was promoted to the reserves who competed in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

, his first professional appearance occurring on 2 March 1997 in a 0–2 home loss against

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

where he played the full 90 minutes. Villa spent the following five seasons in the second division, starting out with a loan at

Racing de Ferrol Racing Club de Ferrol, commonly known as Racing de Ferrol, is a Spanish football team based in Ferrol, Province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded in 1919, the club currently plays in , holding home games at '' E ...

. Subsequently, he represented Leganés and Córdoba, scoring a career-best eight goals (with the professionals) in 2004–05 for the latter side but being relegated. Villa retired in 2009 at the age of 33 after a spell with

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, due to knee problems.

Coaching career

Villa started working as a manager at amateurs Trival Valderas, being in charge of its youth squads. In June 2012, he was appointed manager of Córdoba B, replacing Rafael Berges who took the reins of the first team. He finished the season in second place in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

, being ousted in the play-offs by Granada B who were eventually promoted. Villa was named coach of Córdoba on 27 June 2013, with the club still in the second tier. He was relieved of his duties on 9 February of the following year, due to poor results. Starting in the summer of 2014, Villa worked with compatriot

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa. He is widely regarded as o ...

at several teams. His first one was

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

, followed by

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, Villarreal and

Managerial statistics

References

External links

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Futbolme profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villa, Pablo 1976 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Community of Madrid Men's association football forwards Segunda División players Segunda División B players CF Trival Valderas players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Racing de Ferrol footballers CD Leganés players Córdoba CF players CD Guadalajara (Spain) footballers Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Tercera División managers Córdoba CF B managers Córdoba CF managers Sevilla FC non-playing staff Villarreal CF non-playing staff Paris Saint-Germain FC non-playing staff Arsenal F.C. non-playing staff Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England