on june 4, 2008, villarreal of la liga agreed in principle with major league soccer and the new york red bulls to sign altidore for roughly $10 million or €7.4 million. this transfer fee surpasses fulham's fee for clint dempsey, which was $4 million or roughly £2 million, and was the largest fee paid for any mls player at the time. altidore finalized his personal contract and was unveiled by the club on june 11, 2008. on september 14, 2008, altidore made his la liga debut, coming on as a second-half substitute against deportivo la coruña. on november 1, 2008, he became the first american international to score in la liga when he came on in the 90th minute and scored against athletic bilbao. on november 30, 2008, altidore started his first game in la liga against recreativo huelva. after spending a year and a half on loan, altidore returned to villarreal. he favored staying with villarreal instead of another loan to try to prove to the club he was worth the investment they made two years ago.