By David Salazar, d.salazar@latinospost.com (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jul 08, 2013 10:50 PM EDT
Tags Soccer

David Villa will join Atletico Madrid for the 2013-14 season.

According to ESPNFC, "Barcelona have confirmed that David Villa will move to Atletico Madrid for a fee that could potentially rise to €5.1 million, with the Rojiblancos beating Tottenham to the striker's signature."

Atletico Madrid wrote in a statement, "FC Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid have reached an agreement in principle for the transfer of the player David Villa to the Madrid club."

The club's Twitter account also noted that Villa would have undergo a medical before being confirmed as a member of Atletico Madrid.

Villa will have a tremendous task to overcome when he arrives in the fall as the Spaniard will have to replace the elite output from former Madrid striker Radamel Falcao. The Colombian put up 28 goals in 34 Spanish league matches for the Copa del Rey winners. Meanwhile, Villa only managed 10 in 17 matches for Barcelona; he only played a total of 31 games for Spain's top squad in the 2012-13 season. The task becomes all the more imposing when one considers that the striker has not scored 28 goals since 2008-09 when he was a member of Valencia; Villa never eclipsed the 18 goal mark since joining Barcelona in 2010-11. Villa scored a total of 48 goals in 119 games as a member of Barcelona.

Villa is Spain's all-time leading scorer with 56 career goals; he scored his last three in one match during a Confederations Cup match against Tahiti.

Atletico Madrid finished the 2012-13 season in third place in the league to qualify for the Champions league next fall. The team also defeated Real Madrid 2-1 in the Copa del Rey final; Villa will face Barcelona in the two-legged Spanish Super Cup this summer.

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