David Villa
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Villa managed the hat-trick in just over five minutes (80th to the 85th minute) making it one of the quickest hat-tricks ever recorded. Valencia won that game 3–0. That season saw him score 25 goals in 35 league matches for Valencia, finishing one goal behind the league's top scorer Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona. Villa's goal tally that year was the best that any Valencia player had ever achieved since Edmundo Suárez over 60 years beforehand. Villa's form continued into the 2006–07 season, with the striker forming a partnership up front with former Real Madrid star Fernando Morientes. Between them, Villa and Morientes netted 43 goals in all competitions. That year also saw Villa debut in the UEFA Champions League; his first match was a qualifying match, coming on as a late substitute in a 1–0 first leg loss against Red Bull Salzburg. He went on to start the second leg and scored in a 3–0 win which saw Valencia qualify for the Champions League group stages. Crucial goals against Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk helped Valencia qualify for the knock out stages where they faced Inter Milan. Villa scored a free kick goal in the first leg away from home, while one of Inter's defenders complained that Villa had "made us look like idiots, all on his own". Valencia went through to the quarter finals where they faced Chelsea. Villa featured in both games but failed to make the score sheet. Valencia subsequently got knocked out by the London team 3–2 on aggregate. In October 2006 he was included among the 50 nominees for the Ballon d'Or (often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year Award).
A crucial goal against Espanyol and a brace against Sevilla helped him reach 16 goals that season and would see him come 6th in La Liga's top scorer list that season (scoring the same amount of goals as fellow international Raúl Tamudo) while he created more assists anyone. The 2007–08 season was not easy for Villa nor for his teammates. Early in the season, their manager, Quique Sánchez Flores, was fired and replaced by Ronald Koeman. Koeman was then fired on the 22 April, after a run of poor results, even though he managed to win a trophy with Valencia, as Valencia beat Getafe CF in the Copa del Rey-final. Koeman got replaced by the highly rated UD Almería coach, Unai Emery, at the end of the season. Under Koeman, Villa managed to see the back of the net 18 times in his 26 appearances. He also won the first professional trophy of his Valencia spell, winning the Copa del Rey for the second time in his career, beating Barcelona 3–2 in the semi-finals and then Getafe CF 3–1 in the final. giving the team a place in the UEFA Cup. By the end of the season he signed a new six-year contract with Valencia, committing his future to the club until 2014. That season, Villa once again saw himself playing Champions League football. He scored the only goal in a 1–0 win against Schalke 04 and went on to put Valencia 1–0 up against Chelsea, however, goals from Joe Cole and Didier Drogba saw Valencia lose 2–1. Valencia finished bottom of the group and were knocked out. On his 100th league appearance for Valencia, Villa scored a hat-trick against Levante; his 54th, 55th and 56th league goals for the club. Another two goals on the final day of the