Martín Palermo, Boca Juniors' Titan
Argentina has produced some of the best players in the history of football, with Diego Armando Maradona, Alfredo Di Stefano, and Lionel Messi being the three most prominent examples. This is also a country with some of the most prominent football clubs in South America, with Boca Juniors and River Plate, in particular, regarded as two of the biggest teams on the entire planet. However, when it comes to the league's history and the players who have created lasting legacies there, it is not as prominent beyond South American shores. The case of striker Martín Palermo might be one of the best examples. He is one of the best players to ever grace Boca Juniors and the Argentine league, but his lack of success in Europe and with the national team has made him somewhat forgotten outside of South America.
Early Prime in Argentina
Palermo has always been associated with Boca Juniors, but he actually started as a professional player at another club in Argentina, Estudiantes de la Plata, back in 1991. That is another one of the most prominent clubs in the country, and he played there for five years, starting at the age of 17. During his years here he gained experience and slowly became a more reliable goal scorer.He was transferred to Boca Juniors in 1997, and that is when he started to build a reputation as one of the best players at the club. Palermo would become a major component of manager Carlos Bianchi's team, which took Boca back to the upper echelons of South American football, winning the Copa Libertadores two years in a row, in 2000 and 2001.
Palermo was a prolific striker for Boca during this first period of his career, which is something him scoring 91 goals in 124 matches across all competitions from 1997 to 2001 shows. It is also worth pointing out that he lost six months in this time period due to an injury he sustained in November 1999. He came back for the second leg of the 2000 Copa Libertadores quarterfinals against eternal rivals River Plate, scoring the third goal in their 3-0 victory as he entered as a sub in the final moments of the match.
He also developed a strong chemistry with the team's key midfielder, Juan Román Riquelme. While their relationship had a lot of ups and downs throughout the years, they were an instrumental duo for Boca, as shown in the 2000 Intercontinental Cup where they defeated then-European champions Real Madrid 2-1, with Riquelme having a legendary performance and Palermo scoring both goals.
Years in Spain
Palermo would sign for recently promoted Villarreal in La Liga in January 2001, although his time in Spain would be mostly remembered as a disappointment. The fact that his most memorable moment in that league was when he was celebrating a goal for the club and the concrete wall holding fans fell apart, injuring him for several months, is a testament to how much he struggled in this country.He would play for Villarreal from January 2001 until the summer of 2003, scoring 21 goals in 81 matches across all competitions. However, between injuries and lack of consistency, his time there was mostly viewed as a failure. The same can be said of the season he spent at Real Betis, where playing time was scarce, and the six months he spent in the second division with Deportivo Alavés was more of the same, even though he had more playing minutes there.
All in all, Palermo's time in Spain was viewed as a massive disappointment for both the player and the clubs he played for. So, when the offer came to return to Argentina, he took it, especially considering that the offer was to return to the club where he had achieved so much earlier in his career.
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Martín Palermo and Diego Maradona statue outside of La Bombonera stadium
Boca and Redemption
Palermo would return in early 2005 to Boca, and there is a strong argument to be made that his second stint at the club was even more successful than the first. A very good example of this is how he won more Apertura and Clausura league titles (the Argentine league, like the Mexican one, has a weird system with two championships during a single season) during this second era, cementing Boca's dominance in Argentina during the late 2000s.Furthermore, Palermo's return to Boca coincided with the return of Riquelme, with their partnership back in full force, even though they were having problems off the pitch. However, it was through their collaboration, and several other key players, that Boca won the 2007 Copa Libertadores, bringing the club once again to the top of South American football.
Despite being a bit older and more seasoned, Palermo scored a very respectable 145 goals in 280 matches across all competitions for Boca from 2005 to 2011, even winning an award in 2010 as the best player of the Argentine league of the 2000s.
He is not only Boca Juniors' all-time top goalscorer with 236 goals, but he is also the fifth-highest goalscorer in the history of the Argentine league with 227 goals. Furthermore, he is also Boca's all-time goal scorer in international tournaments with 43 goals.
Palermo never truly shined in Europe, but his legacy with Boca is nearly untouchable. He became one of the club's symbols and is the embodiment of that team's best era in the late '90s and most of the 2000s, winning everything there is to win in South American football and leaving his mark in one of the most prominent clubs across the entire globe.