Francisco Pavón Barahona (born 9 January 1980) is a Spanish former

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 as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. His name became associated with the ''Los Galácticos'' policy when

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

– where he spent most of his professional career – president Florentino Pérez promised to build a team full of ''Zidanes and Pavones'' – expensive high-profile recruits like

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

and youth team graduates like Pavón. Over nine seasons, Pavón amassed

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 125 matches and three goals, with his main club and

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Club career

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Pavón progressed through the ranks at

, starting with the junior team ''Tendillo'' until he established himself with the reserves. He made his

debut against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on 6 October 2001 and, shortly after that 2–0 win, signed a seven-year professional contract. He went on to make a further 27 league appearances during the season, adding that campaign's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. Pavón totalled 51 league matches in the next two years, scoring a rare goal on 8 May 2004 in a 2–3 home loss to

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

. His role would diminish drastically onwards, as he made no league appearances during 2006–07. On 25 April 2007, media speculation indicated that Pavón was close to agreeing a four-year deal with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

, rejoining former teammate Iván Campo, but nothing came of it. He eventually put pen to paper a four-year contract with

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

in July after his release from Real Madrid, but took part in just eight league games through the season as the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

ese were relegated. In 2008–09's

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 ...

, Pavón netted his first goal for Zaragoza, in a 2–1 home victory over Real Murcia who had also been relegated the previous campaign. He contributed much more consistently as they were immediately promoted. Pavón was only third or fourth-choice centre-back in the 2009–10 season, but still managed to score twice as Zaragoza retained their status in the division. He signed for AC Arles-Avignon on the last day of the 2010 summer

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

, reuniting with former Real Madrid teammate Álvaro Mejía. In November 2011, Pavón went on

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

with West Ham United of the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

, but failed to convince manager Sam Allardyce of his fitness. After nearly two years without a club – during which he refused to claim unemployment benefits, saying "others need it more"– he chose to retire, aged 33.

Career statistics

:Source:

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 2002–03, 2006–07 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

: 2001–02 * Intercontinental Cup:

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavon, Francisco 1980 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Madrid Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Real Zaragoza players Ligue 1 players AC Arlésien players UEFA Champions League winning players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France