Legends: Martin Palermo
The natural goal scorer who saw his trophy-laden career blighted by injury
7 November 2017
When we think of the great Argentinean goal scorers of the past, we ultimately arrive at Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo and of course, Diego Maradona. Or, if you care to venture back even further, there is Luis Artime, Leopoldo Luque and Jose Sanfilippo – all of whom were prolific for their country.
Fast forward to the present day and Argentina are still blessed with a wealth of attacking talents that would walk into any national side. Sergio Agüero, now Manchester City’s all-time top scorer, Juventus duo Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuaín, and the main man himself Lionel Messi.
But one player often overlooked for his goal scoring exploits is Martin Palermo, who was one of the most clinical strikers in world football during his prime and may well have been elevated to the higher echelons had injury (two separate cruciate ligament injuries and a horrific double leg break) not hampered his career.
The Boca Juniors legend signed for Villarreal in January 2001 and would be competing in La Liga along with some of the finest strikers on the planet in Patrick Kluivert, Raul, Rivaldo and Diego Tristan. A chance to make a name for himself at the highest level.
After a slow start to his career in Spain, Palermo soon began to find his feet and, more importantly the back of the net. However, after scoring against Levante in a Copa del Rey clash on 29 November 2001, the striker celebrated with the fans on a concrete wall, which subsequently collapsed leaving Palermo with fractures to the tibia and fibula in his left leg.
The Argentinean never regained his form for Villarreal and left the club for Real Betis in 2003, before joining Spanish second tier outfit Alavés a year later.
His time in Spain came to an end in July 2004 when he returned to Boca Juniors and helped fire them to a Copa Sudamericana title against Bolivar. The forward was on the score sheet in the final, along with a then-20-year-old Carlos Tevez.
Palermo was also on target a year later as Boca defended their title against Mexican giants Pumas UNAM. Also part of that squad were midfielder Fernando Gago, who won two La Liga titles with Real Madrid, and forward Rodrigo Palacio, who went on to play for Inter Milan.
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However, Palermo is most fondly remembered missing three penalties against Colombia in the 1999 Copa America. The striker crashed his first attempt off the crossbar, blazed his second penalty over before seeing his third spot-kick saved by Miguel Calero. Argentina went onto lose the game 3-0, and were knocked out by eventual winners Brazil in the quarter-finals.
That was one of just 15 international caps for the striker, who bagged nine goals for his country and even became Argentina’s oldest ever goal scorer when he found the net against Greece at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, aged 36 years and seven months.
Palermo burst onto the scene at Estudiantes, who have also produced talent such as Pablo Piatti and Juan Sebastián Verón. The striker helped Los Pincharratas to a Primera B Nacional title in 1995 before joining Boca in 1997, following in the footsteps of Verón, who had since moved onto Serie A side Sampdoria.
Prior to moving to Spain, Palermo helped Boca to three successive Argentinean titles between 1998 and 2000, and a further three upon his return in 2005, 2006 and 2008. In addition to domestic glory, Palermo also enjoyed Copa Libertadores success in 2000 and 2007 as Boca overcame Brazilian outfits Palmeiras and Grêmio respectively.
In his two spells with Los Xeneizes, Palermo became the club’s top scorer in the professional era with 236 goals in all competitions and has finished the season as Boca’s top scorer on 16 occasions (Apertua, seven and Clausura, nine).
Of his personal accolades the most prestigious is his 1998 South American Footballer of the Year award – which had previously been won by Cafu, Maradona, Pelé, Sócrates and Zico, and has since been claimed by Neymar, Juan Román Riquelme, Romário, Ronaldinho and Tevez. Esteemed company indeed.
But perhaps his finest moment was his Man of the Match performance against Real Madrid in the 2000 Intercontinental Cup final, where he scored twice in the opening six minutes to give Boca an unprecedented 2-1 victory over a Galácticos team that included Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo and Raul.
So here’s to Martin Palermo; a true goal scorer, and possibly one of the most underrated strikers in world football.
