David Silva

Full name : David Josué Jiménez Silva

Date of birth : 8 January 1986

Place of birth : Arguineguín, Canary Islands, Spain

Height : 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
 
Playing position : Attacking midfielder




David Josué Jiménez Silva is a Spanish footballer who plays for Manchester City and the Spanish national team. Silva is capable of playing on the wing, as a traditional number 10, and sometimes as a supporting striker. A Spanish international since the age of 20 with over 50 caps, he was a member of the squads that won both the Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup.

He spent six years of his professional career with Valencia CF, appearing in more than 150 games and winning one Copa del Rey, before moving in 2010 to Manchester City.

Early life .
Silva was born in Arguineguín, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, to Fernando Jiménez, a former municipal police officer who eventually was responsible for the safety of the Valencia CF stadium, and Eva Silva. His father, Fernando, is Canarian while his mother, Eva, is of Japanese descent, confirmed in an interview by his family members to the Canarian media. Silva has two younger siblings, sister Natalia and brother Nando. He is commonly called by the nickname Chino (Spanish for "Chinese") due to his physical appearance.

Silva began playing football in the youth team of UD San Fernando, near Maspalomas. Originally, he played as a goalkeeper, before becoming a winger and mirrored his game around his footballing idol as a youth, Michael Laudrup. 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.

International career

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 strikerGraziano Pellè.

Silva made his senior international debut 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 Cesc 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 semi-finals.

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 a 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, a friendly against Colombia on February 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. He scored twice and provided one assist in Spain's 3-1 victory against Scotland in their final match of the Euro 2012 qualifiers. The win saw the Spaniards enter the tournament with a perfect qualifying record by winning all their group games. He scored the first goal in Spain's 2-2 comeback against Costa Rica, a friendly match where he came on as a substitute in the second half with Spain trailing 2-0. He once again scored in Spain's first friendly of 2012 against Venezuela to make the score 2–0 in a match that ended in a 5–0 win.