Matías Damián Palacios (born 10 May 2002) is an Argentine-Emirati 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 plays for UAE Pro League side

Al Ain Al Ain ( ar, ٱلْعَيْن, , ) is a city in the western side of Tawam (region), Tuwwam region and the seat of the administrative division of its namesake, Al-Ain Region, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. ...

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 ...

. he acquired

Emirati citizenship Emirati nationality law governs citizenship eligibility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The law is primarily ''jus sanguinis''. Alien (law), Foreigners may be naturalized and granted citizenship, but the process is limited due to the declinin ...

in 2024.

Club career

San Lorenzo

Palacios began his career with

San Lorenzo San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Lawrence of Rome, Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to: Places Argentina * San Lorenzo, Santa Fe * San Lorenzo Department, Chaco * Monte San Lorenzo, a mountain on t ...

. He made his professional football debut on 21 September 2018, featuring for the final twenty-nine minutes of a 3–2 victory over Patronato at the Estadio Pedro Bidegain. Aged 16, it meant Palacios became the club's youngest ever player in

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

history. He made five further appearances for the club, which included his one and only start on 10 January 2021 against Banfield.

Basel

On 15 February 2021, Palacios signed with

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

club

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

; penning a contract until 2025. He joined Basel's first team for their 2020–21 season under head coach

Ciriaco Sforza Ciriaco Sforza (; born 2 March 1970) is a Swiss football manager and former professional player who last managed Swiss Super League club Basel. After beginning his career with Swiss clubs FC Aarau and Grasshopper Club Zürich, he most notably p ...

. Palacios played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game in the

Kybunpark The Kybunpark, formerly known as AFG Arena, is a multi-use stadium in St. Gallen, Switzerland, completed in 2008. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of FC St. Gallen of the Swiss Super League. It replaces the Espe ...

on 27 February as Basel were defeated 1–3 by St. Gallen. He scored his first goal for the club on 15 August 2021 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

away game as Basel won 7–0 against amateur club FC Schönenwerd-Niedergösgen. He scored his first league goal for the club in the away game in the

Swissporarena Swissporarena is a multi-use stadium in Lucerne, Switzerland, completed in 2011. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of FC Luzern of the Swiss Super League. The stadium has a capacity of 16,800 spectators, including ...

on 28 November as Basel won 3–1 against

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

. At the beginning of the next season Palacios left the club because he had only been used as a substitute. During his time with them, Palacios played a total of 62 games for Basel scoring a total of four goals. 31 of these games were in the

, three in the

, 12 in the Europa Conference League and 16 were friendly games. He scored one goal in the domestic league, two in the cup and the other was scored during the test games.

Al Ain

Palacios moved on to play for

in the United Arab Emirates.

International career

Palacios represented Argentina at U15, U17 and

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA SN ...

level. For the U15s, Palacios won the 2017 South American Championship prior to winning the

2016 COTIF Tournament The 2016 L'Alcúdia International Football Tournament is a football competition which took place in July and August 2016. The 2016 edition was the first to feature only international youth teams. Previous editions have contained a mix of national ...

with the U20s.

Pablo Aimar Pablo César Aimar (born 3 November 1979) is an Argentine former professional Association football, footballer and current assistant coach of the Argentina national football team, Argentina national team. Aimar played as an Midfielder#Attacking ...

selected Palacios for the

2019 South American U-17 Championship The 2019 South American U-17 Championship ( es, Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-17 Perú 2019, pt-BR, Campeonato Sul-Americano Sub-17 Peru 2019) was the 18th edition of the South American U-17 Championship, the biennial international youth football c ...

on 3 March.

Diego Placente Diego Rodolfo Placente (born 24 April 1977) is a former Argentine footballer who played as a left-back. Club career Born in Buenos Aires, Placente started playing professionally in 1996 with Argentinos Juniors, before moving to Argentine gian ...

called him up for the U17s' trip to Russia for the

2019 Granatkin Memorial The 2019 Valentin Granatkin Memorial Cup is its 19th edition after dissolution of the USSR. The tournament was held at Saint Petersburg, Russia from 4 to 14 June 2019, being organised by Russian Football Union. Participating nations Total of 12 ...

. He scored in game one against Armenia, prior to netting versus

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in the semi-finals on the way to Argentina winning the competition. He was also chosen as the tournament's best midfielder. In October 2019, Palacios was picked for the

2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 18th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was ...

in Brazil.

Personal life

His brother,

Julián Julián is the Spanish equivalent of the name Julian. Notable people with the name include: * Julián, Julián Cuesta, Spanish footballer * Julián Orbón (1925–1991) Cuban composer * Julián Carrón (1950) Spanish Catholic theologian * Julián ...

, is a fellow footballer; he also started off in San Lorenzo's youth academy.

Career statistics

Honours

Argentina U15 *

South American U-15 Championship The South American U-15 Championship, also known as the Campeonato Sudamericano Sub15, is a South American association football competition held every two years contested by male players under the age of 15 and is organized by CONMEBOL, the governi ...

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Argentina U17 *

South American U-17 Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly created FIFA U-16 World Cup (now ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Granatkin Memorial The Granatkin Memorial (russian: Мемориал Гранаткина) is a youth association football tournament which traditionally features invited national teams composed of U-17/U-18/U-19 players. The tournament is held in Saint Petersburg ...

Argentina U20 * L'Alcúdia International Football Tournament: 2018 Al Ain *

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

: 2023-24

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palacios, Matias 2002 births Living people People from General Pico Footballers from La Pampa Province Emirati men's footballers Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football midfielders San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers FC Basel players Al Ain FC players Argentine Primera División players Swiss Promotion League players Swiss Super League players UAE Pro League players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates AFC Champions League Elite winning players Naturalized citizens of the United Arab Emirates Argentine emigrants to the United Arab Emirates