David Villa Enjoyed the Snow in New York City Today, Frank Lampard (Presumably) Did Not

David Villa’s accomplishments on the soccer field are extensive. The former Spanish international won a World Cup and European Championship while playing for his country and a UEFA Champions League with Barcelona. Come March he’ll be plying his trade at Yankee Stadium as the “face” of MLS expansion franchise NYCFC.

On Friday morning it snowed, briefly, in New York City. When this happens in the 21st century, you are duty-bound to post a picture of it on social media or gripe about the people who choose to do so. Villa, the 12th leading scorer in La Liga history, opted for the former and appeared pretty happy wearing green pants in about 1.5 inches of snow.

Granted this is a flimsy excuse for a post, but NYCFC is in the news — in American soccer circles, anyway — over the way the club handled its other marquee signing, Frank Lampard. The former English international will not be posing for easily retweetable photos in front of a New York City pretzel cart any time soon. Trumpeted in the summer as one of NYCFC’s designated player signings, Lampard never actually had a contract in place with MLS per the Associated Press, instead only a “commitment” to join the team eventually.

"The clubs’ parent company told The Associated Press that the NYCFC announcement in July “was a genuine error which throws everything into confusion (for media and fans). It wasn’t a contract. It’s an agreement with City Football Group with intention to play for NYCFC.”"

Some background: Lampard was supposed to join NYCFC in time for the start of the 2015 MLS season and at the time the club made all sorts of announcements about that. Then, last August, he signed what was thought to be a loan with (NYCFC owner) Manchester City — until the end of 2014. Lampard has been quite effective for City. The club extended its contract with him through the end of the EPL season in May.

Friday, Lampard went on Facebook and broke his silence, saying he’ll join up with New York in July. So that clears everything up then, right?

Whatever the result of this, two things are clear: 1) NYCFC’s credibility in the New York market has already been tested despite not playing a single game yet. 2) Lampard missed out on a picturesque snowy day in NYC — his loss.

As someone who’ll take the train to Yankee Stadium to watch NYCFC play this season, I’m much more excited about Villa’s presence with the team, anyway. As we saw at the World Cup last summer, he can still score goals with the best of them.

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