El Guaje hits 400: NYCFC's David Villa hits rare scoring milestone

From Asturias to Valencia to Barcelona to Melbourne to the heart of the Bronx, David Villa’s life in soccer has led him to myriad destinations and stellar achievements over the past 17 years, and on Sunday evening he marked another incredible milestone.


Beating FC Dallas’ Jimmy Maurer from the penalty spot, the Spaniard scored his 66th MLS regular-season goal to put New York City FC up 2-1 (watch video above), his 400th career goal across club and international competition.


It puts him in rare company, with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic the only other active players to have reached that level.


According to statistics totaled by NYCFC, Villa’s career scoring breakdown looks like this, in terms of goals by team:

Villa has scored against 118 different clubs and countries, against 19 different countries’ club teams, against 35 different clubs in Spain and on six of the world’s continents, with 74 of them coming from the penalty spot.

And “El Guaje” is not done. Not long after his 400th, he doubled NYCFC’s lead with his second goal of the game.


RBNY v. NYCFC Saturday @ 2pm ET at Red Bull Arena – Limited tickets available for the NY Derby starting at $40