César Palacios Chocarro (born 19 October 1974) is a Spanish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played mainly as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. His career was solely associated with two clubs,

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

and Numancia, having captained the former a number of years. He appeared in 520 competitive matches across both major levels of Spanish football, amassing

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

totals of 130 games and four goals in seven seasons.

Club career

A product of CA Osasuna's youth system, Palacios – born in

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

– made his first-team debut on 6 April 1994 in a 1–0 home win against CD Tenerife, with the team eventually finishing the season in last position. He went on to become an important element of the squad in the following years, which included six

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

seasons; in 1999–2000, as they returned to

after a six-year absence, he scored five goals in 40 matches, and also served as one of their

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. For the 2004–05 campaign, Palacios joined Soria's

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Los ...

, where he was an undisputed first-choice from the start, helping the side to return to the top flight in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. In late June 2010, after 52 league appearances over two seasons, 19 in the top tier in 2008–09, the 35-year-old retired from the game, becoming his last club's director of football.

International career

Palacios represented Spain at various youth levels, but was never capped by the senior team. In

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, he helped the under-17s to win the

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

in Switzerland (then named under-16). Three months later, Palacios played six matches in the category's

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

, as the country finished in second position in Italy.

Honours

Numancia *

: 2007–08 Spain U16 *

UEFA European Under-16 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Under-17 Championship, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain is the most successful team in this ...

Spain U17 *

runner-up:

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palacios, Cesar 1974 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Pamplona Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CA Osasuna B players CA Osasuna players CD Numancia players Spain men's youth international footballers CD Numancia non-playing staff