Martín Palermo life and biography

Martín Palermo (born November 7, 1973 in La Plata) is an Argentine professional footballer currently playing for Boca Juniors of Argentina. Nicknamed Loco (crazy) or Titán (titan), he has also played in Argentina for Estudiantes de La Plata as well as in Spain for Villarreal, Real Betis, and Alavés.

His late goal in a crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier with Paraguay may just have secured his place in this Argentina squad, with boss Diego Maradona hailing him as 'Saint Martin' after that game.

Maradona has been keen to select a handful of players performing in the country's domestic championship in his team and Boca Juniors' all-time leading scorer has been in prolific form since returning to his homeland back in 2004.

He has the experience of playing in Europe after spells with Villarreal, Real Betis and Alaves, while his international record is also impressive. His chances in the national team have been few and far between since he made his debut back in 1999 though, with a ten-year exile only ended by Maradona last year.

With the Argentine national team Palermo has played fourteen matches and has scored eight goals. He is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for missing three penalties for Argentina in a single international match against Colombia for the Copa América 1999. The first penalty rebounded off the crossbar, whilst the second went over, causing TV commentators to remark, "Even higher than the first one." Though the third was on target it was saved by Miguel Calero. It seemed that his international career had finished in 1999 with no further call ups, but in 2008 national coach Alfio Basile stated that he was very disappointed that Palermo had suffered an injury, because he had been considering offering him a return to international football.

Current Argentine coach Maradona recalled Palermo to the national team and introduced him as a substitute in the 2010 World Cup qualifying game against Paraguay after a 10 year exile from the international scene. A couple of weeks later he was once again called up to play a Friendly match against Ghana. For this game Palermo was part of the starting eleven and Martín made the most of it by scoring the only goals of the game which Argentina won 2–0. Martín's next game was on October 10, for a 2010 World Cup qualifier against Peru. Palermo sealed a 2–1 victory for Argentina with a 93rd minute strike. After the game Maradona described the goal as "One more miracle of Saint Palermo."

On May 19, 2010, Martín Palermo was selected to the Argentine national team 23 man final roster for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, this will be Palermo's first World Cup.

Palermo did not help himself by missing three penalties in one international game at the start of his Argentina career, so it's safe to assume the striker known as Loco (Crazy) would not relish a penalty shoot out at the World Cup this summer.

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