Aston Villa is one of the two professional football (soccer) teams in Birmingham, England (the other being Birmingham City F.C.). They are part of the English Football League and currently play in the Premier League.
Their current home venue is Villa Park having previously played at Aston Park (1873-1876) and Perry Barr (1876-1897). They have a training ground at Bodymoor Heath in north Warwickshire.
It was formed in 1874 by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Aston, Birmingham. The club was a founder member of the Football League (in 1888) and in the early years was a major force. By 1920 it had won the League Championship and FA Cup six times each. However it did not win another major trophy until 1957, when it again won the FA Cup. In more recent times, Aston Villa have won the League Cup twice in the 1990s (1994 and 1996) and as well as runners-up in the old First Division/new Premier League (1989-1990 and 1992-1993 seasons).
Aston Villa is one of four English football teams that have won the European Champions Cup. They did so in 1982 on 26th of May in Rotterdam, beating Bayern Munich 1-0 thanks to Peter Withe's 67th minute goal.
Achievements
- European Cup
- European Super Cup
- 1982, 1983
- Inter-Toto Cup
- FA Cup
- League Cup
- First Division Champions
- Second Division Champions
- Third Division Champions
- FA Youth Cup
Managers
- Aug 1884 - May 1926: George Ramsey
- August 1926 - May 1934: W J Smith
- June 1934 - October 1935: Jimmy McMullan
- November 1936 - September 1939: Jimmy Hogan
- August 1945 - August 1950: Alex Massie
- December 1950 - August 1953: George Martin
- September 1953 - November 1958: Eric Houghton
- December 1958 - July 1964: Joe Mercer
- July 1964 - May 1967: Dick Taylor
- July 1967 - November 1968: Tommy Cummings
- December 1968 - January 1970: Tommy Docherty
- January 1970 - May 1974: Vic Crowe
- June 1974 - February 1982: Ron Saunders
- February 1982 - June 1984: Tony Barton
- July 1984 - September [[[1986]]: Graham Turner
- September 1986 - May 1987: Billy McNeill
- May 1987 - July 1990: Graham Taylor
- July 1990 - May 1991: Jozef Venglos
- July 1991 - November 1994: Ron Atkinson
- November 1994 - February 1998: Brian Little
- February 1998 - January 2002: John Gregory
- January 2002 - February 2002: Stuart Gray
- January 2002 - February 2002: John Deehan
- February 2002 - May 2003: Graham Taylor
- May 2003 - Present : David O'Leary
Notable Players
- Charlie Aitken
- Juan Pablo Angel
- Dalian Atkinson
- Gareth Barry
- Stan Collymore
- Gordon Cowans
- Tony Daley
- Dion Dublin
- Ugo Ehiogu
- Trevor Ford
- Andy Gray
- Lee Hendrie
- Eric Houghton
- David James
- Brian Little
- Paul McGrath
- William McGregor
- Peter McParland
- Olaf Mellberg
- Paul Merson
- Dennis Mortimer
- David Platt
- George Ramsay
- Dean Saunders
- Gareth Southgate
- Nigel Spinks
- Darius Vassell
- Peter Withe
- Dwight Yorke