New York City captain David Villa has enjoyed a glittering career and will go down as one of the best strikers to have graced the game over the past decade.

A 2008 European Championship and 2010 World Cup winner with Spain, the 34-year-old striker achieved fantastic success at Zaragoza and Valencia before Barcelona  paid 40 million Euros to land him back in 2010.

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Villa, who turns 34 today, won two La Liga titles and the Champions League in 2011 with the Nou Camp side, before switching to Atletico Madrid for one season and more recently New York City.

The forward is Spain’s all-time top goalscorer having scored 59 goals in 97 appearances.

1942: Mike Gibson – former Ireland and Lions centre, capped a record 69 times for his country, born 1942 (73).

1953: Franz Klammer – five-time World Cup downhill champion and 1976 Olympic skiing champion from Austria (62).

1965: Katarina Witt – four-time figure-skating world champion, six-time consecutive European champion and twice Olympic gold medal winner from Germany (50).

1970: Christian Karembeu – former Real Madrid, Middlesbrough and France midfielder who was part of his country’s 1998 World Cup-winning side (45).

1971: Frank Sinclair – former Chelsea, Leicester and Jamaica defender (46).

1976: Mark Boucher – former South Africa wicketkeeper, born 1976 (41).

1977: David Sales (cricket) – Northamptonshire batsman, born 1977 (38).

1982: Michael Essien – Panathinaikos and Ghana midfielder, formerly of Chelsea and Real Madrid (33).

1983: Stephen Donald – former Bath and New Zealand fly-half (32).