Ricardo Julio Villa (; born 18 August 1952), more commonly known as Ricky Villa, is an Argentine

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former professional

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was famous for his time playing football from 1970 to 1989.

Career

Villa was born in

Roque Pérez Roque Pérez is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative headquarters for Roque Pérez Partido. Notable people * Jorge Dalto Jorge Dalto (July 8, 1948 – October 27, 1987) was a pop, jazz and Afro-Cuban music pi ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In the 1970s he played successively for

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Río de la Plata, Rio de la Plata, in the , on the south east of the Greater Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and it is the seat of the Quilmes Partido, eponymous county. With a population of 230 ...

, Atlético de Tucumán and Racing Club. At the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

, he was a member of the Argentinian team that won the tournament and made two appearances as a substitute in the second round. Afterwards, he was snapped up by

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Keith Burkinshaw Harry Keith Burkinshaw (born 23 June 1935) is an English former professional footballer and football manager. He is one of the most successful managers of Tottenham Hotspur, winning 3 major trophies for the club as manager there. Playing career ...

together with

Ossie Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentina national team. He now runs ...

. Arriving to a ticker tape welcome at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

, Villa scored against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on his debut at the

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when E ...

. Villa scored a total of 25 goals in 179 Spurs appearances, including his winning goal against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in the

1981 FA Cup Final The 1981 FA Cup Final was the 100th final of the FA Cup, and was contested by Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. The original match took place on Saturday 9 May 1981 at Wembley, and finished 1–1 after extra-time. Tommy Hutchison opened th ...

replay – for which he won the

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

goal of the century award in 2001. He had also opened the scoring in the 8th minute of that final replay. He was withdrawn from the 1982 FA Cup Final Tottenham team, due to the outbreak of the

Falklands Conflict The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland I ...

. Villa played on in Argentina, Colombia and the United States before ending his career in the lower leagues of Argentine football with

Defensa y Justicia Club Social y Deportivo Defensa y Justicia, commonly known as Defensa y Justicia, is an Argentine football club from Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires, established in 1935.

. Villa also represented Argentina in the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

edition of the

World Cup of Masters The World Cup of Masters, also known as the Pelé World Cup and Mundial de Seniors was an event that ran every two years from 1987 until 1995. The tournament was for senior (35+) players and it was under the rules of the IMFA (International Master ...

, scoring in the opening round against England. He dedicated himself to politics during the 1990s, but since July 2005 has been the technical secretary of

Talleres de Córdoba Club Atlético Talleres (; (lit. Workshops Athletic Club) mostly known simply as Talleres (lit. Workshops) or Talleres de Córdoba ) (Córdoba Workshops) is an Argentine sports club from the city of Córdoba. The institution is mostly known f ...

. He resides in

Villa Carlos Paz Villa Carlos Paz () is a city in the center-north of the province of Córdoba, Argentina, in the south of the Punilla Valley, lying on the western slope of the Sierras Chicas. It has a population of about 56,000 as per the . The area of Punilla is ...

with his wife and four children. As of November 2007, it was announced by FIFA that all members of winning World Cup squads prior to 1982 would receive World Cup winners medals and this includes Villa as part of the 1978 World Cup winning squad. On 7 February 2008, Villa along with his compatriot Ossie Ardiles were inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame.

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

: 1980–81 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

(shared) Argentina *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Villa, Ricardo 1952 births Living people Sportspeople from Buenos Aires Province Argentine footballers Association football midfielders Argentina international footballers FIFA World Cup-winning players 1978 FIFA World Cup players FA Cup Final players Argentine Primera División players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Quilmes Atlético Club footballers Atlético Tucumán footballers San Martín de Tucumán footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983) players Deportivo Cali footballers Defensa y Justicia footballers Defensa y Justicia managers Argentine football managers Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate footballers in Colombia Atlético Tucumán managers