José Ignacio Fernández Palacios (born 3 February 1967), known as Nacho, is a Spanish retired

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 left-back. His entire professional career was associated to

Celta Celta is Galician, Portuguese and Spanish for the Celts. It may also refer to: * Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), an English teaching certificate * Celta (train), an international train service connecting Vigo and Port ...

and Compostela. He appeared in 198

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 ...

matches over eight seasons, scoring four goals.

Club career

Born in

Foz Foz () is a town and municipality in the A Mariña Central comarca in the Galician province of Lugo. It has been historically linked to the Ancient Province of Mondoñedo and also linked to the arrival of Briton immigrants during the Dark Age ...

, Province of Lugo, Nacho spent his entire career in his native Galicia. He signed in 1986 with

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), ...

from amateurs Gran Peña FC, making his first-team debut in the

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 ...

and contributing 20 games (15 starts) as the club

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

. Nacho played his first match in the top flight on 6 September 1987, featuring ten minutes in a 3–3 home draw against Valencia CF and finishing the season with 18 appearances in an eventual seventh-place finish. He continued to be regularly used the following years, being relegated in 1990 but winning promotion in 1992, even though he was only a fringe player in the latter campaign. In the summer of 1992, Nacho joined

SD Compostela Sociedad Deportiva Compostela is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Santiago de Compostela, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. They play home matches at ''Estadio Multiusos de San Lázaro'', and ...

of the second tier, playing 20 games in his second year in a first-ever promotion to the top division. From 1995 to 1998 he made an average of 35 league appearances, with the team being relegated at the end of 1997–98. Nacho spent three more seasons with Compostela, totalling only 23 matches and suffering relegation in 2001, although he made no appearances in his last year. He retired in June 2001, at the age of 34.

International career

In 1995,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

manager Javier Clemente thought of Nacho as Sergi Barjuán's backup for the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

tournament, and told the media that he would be called-up for the national team's next game. In an interview to ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'', the player stated he had no desire to be selected, saying he did not "relate" to the cause. Since such an action was punishable with a one-year ban, the manager decided not to pick him after phoning him to make sure of his position, and his place would be eventually occupied by former Celta teammate and fellow Galician

Jorge Otero Jorge Otero Bouzas (born 28 January 1969) is a Spanish former footballer who played as either a right or left back, and is the current manager of Alondras CF. He appeared in 317 La Liga games over 12 seasons in representation of four teams, mai ...

. Nacho finally represented Galicia in 2005, appearing against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

at the Estadio Multiusos de San Lázaro.

References

External links

*
Celta de Vigo biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nacho 1967 births Living people People from A Mariña Central Sportspeople from the Province of Lugo Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Galicia (Spain) Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players RC Celta de Vigo players SD Compostela footballers Spanish football managers Tercera División managers