Villa can reign for Spain

The Golden Boot favourite is just one strike behind Raul in La Roja's all-time goalscoring chart.

David Villa has continued his impressive scoring record for Spain at the World Cup.

David Villa is only 28, but he's already just a goal away from being Spain's all-time leading goalscorer. His five goals so far in the World Cup have not only reinforced his status as the favourite for the tournament's Golden Boot award, but they have moved him on to 43 goals from 63 appearances- just one behind Raul's 44 goals in 102 games for La Roja.

The Real Madrid great, 33 this month, may have added more had Villa not taken his place and made him a peripheral figure in the Spanish side since 2007. It was a brave move to displace the man then considered to be the King of Spain in all but royal circles, but Villa's scoring record outshines even that of Raul. The Asturian has a ratio of a goal every 0.66 games in international football. Raul is 50 per cent less effective. Only Alfredo di Stefano and legendary Basque striker and six-time top Primera Liga striker Telmo Zarra had better goalscoring ratios than Villa, but Zarra only played 20 times for Spain, Di Stefano 31.

Villa has scored more goals than both and has time on his side to put distance between him and the soon to be second placed Raul. Given his remarkable consistency and lack of injuries, he could outclass every player in Spain's history. Villa has scored more than 15 league goals in each of the last nine seasons, year after year of putting the ball in the net with unmatched efficiency. Zarra died aged 85 in 2006 and Marca, the leading Spanish sport paper, inaugurated a trophy in his name which is awarded to the domestic player with the highest goal total in Spain's top flight. Villa has won the award in five of the six years since.

While at Valencia, he rose above the off-field strife at Mestalla to become the club's talisman. Top scorer in all of his five seasons there, he kept scoring as Los Che stood on the brink of financial collapse in 2009 - 28 times in the league. It was not just about goals - in 2006/07 he made more assists Teammates loved him, fans too. When Villa returns to Sporting, the city of Gijon comes to a standstill as locals block the streets near his hotel to see him: children, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. The Beatles did not attract such delirium when they arrived in New York in 1963.

Zaragoza fans applaud him generously, just as Valencia supporters are likely to do next season when he travels south with his new club, Barcelona. So they should. Not only did Villa never stop scoring, but his goals were often perfectly timed - he celebrated his 100th Valencia appearance by scoring a hat-trick in the city's derby against Levante. Villa has also been able to replicate his club form in the less predictable world of international football.

He finished top scorer in Spain's victorious 2008 European championships and succeeding in uniting a country who sang about how marvellous he was. They are still singing because he keeps scoring. In 2009 he broke a Spanish record with more goals (12) in a calendar year than anyone in the country's history. He also netted in a record six consecutive games, his form as sharp as his sideburns. Villa has been considered world class for several seasons, but not quite at the A-list level occupied by his new club strike partner Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka.

His goals in South Africa should change that, but after missing the 2008 European Championship final to a rare injury, he has more reasons than most for wanting Spain to succeed in today's semi-final against Germany in Durban. Fernando Torres, Villa's likely strike partner today, scored the winner in 2008. "We beat Germany two years ago and I don't think they are happy to meet us again," Villa told reporters recently. "But we have to forget about that game."