‘Uncle’ David Villa: how ex-Barcelona, World Cup and Uefa Champions League winner helped Eastern talent Dani Almazan
- Dani Almazan shone in both the middle of defence and central midfield as Eastern beat Kitchee to secure a Hong Kong FA Cup final spot
- Young Spaniard spent time on mainland and in Puerto Rico before switch to district club, transfer engineered by former Barcelona player father
Dani Almazan was not the only herculean performer in Eastern’s FA Cup semi-final slaying of Kitchee on Sunday, but the Spaniard was surely alone among the victorious contingent in receiving personal congratulations from a World Cup winner.
Almazan’s father, David Pirri, is such close friends with David Villa that the ex-Barcelona and Spain superstar is a de facto uncle to the impressive Eastern player.
Pirri and Villa forged ties as teammates at La Liga club Real Zaragoza, and shared in the glory of beating the Real Madrid “Galacticos” of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and David Beckham to win a Spanish Cup in 2004.
Almazan is content with targeting Hong Kong Cup glory, for now, but the 24-year-old acknowledged the chance of a mainland move would be hard to resist, especially after periods of his young life living in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Growing up in Spain, however, where his dad also played for Barcelona, Las Palmas and Sporting Gijón, Almazan received a large part of his football education from Villa, who added Uefa Champions League success with Barca to his 2010 World Cup winner’s medal.
“My Uncle David is a big influence on me,” Almazan said. “When he was back in Barcelona, we would go to his place, and I would sit next to him and my father watching football. Whatever they talked about, I listened to everything and absorbed all the information.
