David de Gea

David is a hyperopic, which means he is clinically far-sighted. He wears contact lenses to prevent his condition from affecting his performances.

Apart from being one of the best goalkeepers in the world, David is an ardent fan of metal music and regularly attends concerts and music shows in Manchester.

David de Gea was born on November 7, 1990, in Madrid, Spain. His father, Jose, was a goalkeeper too, and his mother, Marivi, worked as a housekeeper. His parents were married for a long time before they had David, their only child. David was conceived when his parents were in their 40s.

While David was interested in sports, his mother pushed him to focus on academics too. As a result, David excelled in both the departments, but football slowly became his first love. His father being a former footballer, David was fortunate to make use of the best training facilities. *Although he was growing up to be a promising goalkeeper, David was initially an outfield player. His childhood coach mentioned that he was aggressive on the outfield and always had the spark of talent. He played as a midfielder for his school team. Moreover, he was great in every position, as an attacking player or a defender, until the age of 14, when he finally recognized his love for goalkeeping.

He performed his absolute best while goalkeeping. Drawing inspiration from his father, he decided to work harder on his goalkeeping skills. He was a tall kid and played basketball during his free time.

At the age of 13, he joined ‘Atletico Madrid,’ which spelt the beginning of his football career. Over the years, he played wonderfully, and finally ended up with a professional contract at the age of 17.

David de Gea proved his goalkeeping skills during his first few seasons with ‘Atletico Madrid.’ In the debut 2009–2010 season, he won two ‘Man of the Match’ awards. However, the beginning of his career was not very smooth. In his debut ‘Championship League’ match against ‘Porto,’ in September 2009, he gave away two goals in the last few minutes. This cost his team the match.

He improved his performance in the ‘La Liga.’ The ‘Premier League’ team ‘Manchester United’ had just lost their legendary goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and were looking for a suitable replacement. David was one of the players they had been following closely. There were speculations that David would end up joining ‘Manchester,’ but he stunned everybody by extending his contract with ‘Atletico’ in 2010.

The 2010–2011 season offered a great start to ‘Atletico’ and David. He performed brilliantly to ensure his team’s victory at the ‘UEFA Super Cup.’ As his performances excelled, he began garnering praises from every corner. The manager of ‘Manchester United’ personally visited the stadium to see David in action, and speculations were ripe about him joining ‘Manchester United.’ David put all speculations to rest by stating that he was bound to a contract with ‘Atletico’ until 2013 and that he was not going anywhere before that.

In 2011, he helped Spain’s ‘Under-21’ team to secure a ‘UEFA European Championship’ win, and in June 2011, it was officially confirmed that David had been acquired by ‘Manchester United’ for a record sum of 18.9 million pounds. In July 2011, David made his debut for ‘Manchester United.’

On July 23, 2011, he played against ‘Chicago Fire’ in his debut match, which was a friendly contest. Manchester won 2–1, but the competitive tournaments were a mixed bag as far as David’s initial performance was concerned.