José Ignacio Fernández Palacios (born 3 February 1967), known as Nacho, 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 lea ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. His entire career was associated to

Celta CELTA is an initial teacher training qualification for teaching English as a second or foreign language (ESL and EFL). It is provided by Cambridge Assessment English through authorised Cambridge English Teaching Qualification centres and can be ...

and Compostela. He appeared in 198

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

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 Ages ...

Province of Lugo Lugo is a province (Spain), province of northwestern Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of Ourense Province, Ourense, Ponteved ...

, 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 Vigo, 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), the club was fou ...

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

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

and contributing 20 games (15 starts) as the club promoted to

. 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 Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

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 Sociedade Deportiva Compostela is a Spanish football team based in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. They play home matches at San Lázaro, and compete in . History A team called Compostela Foot-ball Club was founded in 1928, ceasing to exist ...

of the second tier, playing 20 games in his

second year The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of ...

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 Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

manager

Javier Clemente Javier Clemente Lázaro (; born 12 March 1950) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Forced to retire from playing in his early 20s through injury, he embarked on a coaching career with his first managerial ...

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 Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

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

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. 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 . is the most read newspaper in ...

'', 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. Nacho finally represented Galicia in 2005, appearing against

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

at the Estadio Multiusos de San Lázaro.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nacho 1967 births Living people People from A Mariña Central 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Lugo Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players RC Celta de Vigo players SD Compostela footballers Spanish football managers Tercera División managers Tercera Federación managers