Although being picked, and then rejected, by Madrid is still a scar for Palazon, it remains an indication of how talented this dynamo was as a little kid. As he told his local newspaper: “I remember it like it was yesterday. My dad shaking me awake and telling to get my bags packed. I had a week’s trial at Madrid!
“I have to admit that I struggled being so far away from home. The first few months were brutal, and I’d cry my eyes out after every visit from family or friends. But I realised I had to toughen up mentally. I told myself how lucky I was, that most kids would give their right arm to be in my situation and it worked. I adapted and things got better, although deep down I was still very homesick.”
It’s not unusual to find that, when Madrid figured Isi wasn’t for them, the end was uncompromising. No warning, no preparation: he was called into an office and told to pack his things. Just a kid, humiliated, hurt and without anyone around him to drive him home the hundreds of miles to little Cieza (population 35,000) in Murcia. He still calls the process “devastating.”
Then to Villarreal’s academy for three-and-a-half years. He admits: “Those were the best years of my life. Villarreal’s philosophy of football meant I came on in leaps and bounds tactically and technically, but they let me go too.
“At 19, it felt like the end of the world. You begin to question everything: ‘Is there any point in going on with this? Can I even play football?’ That self-doubt gnaws away at you.”
Back home again, the kid with the big reputation who, according to the gaze he felt from cynical locals, had failed. Broke and without a trade, he asked a friend whether he could work with him in the local fruit-picking industry. Yet Isi didn’t really understand how brutal, or useful, this experience would prove.
He says: “I’d been used to a good wage at Villarreal and suddenly, I didn’t have a cent to my name. One of my friends ran a peach farm, so I asked him if he would take me on as a labourer. I spent my mornings picking peaches and my afternoons training. It’s the kind of experience that teaches you a bit of humility. I’d say to myself, ‘F—, just a few weeks ago you were playing in one of the best youth sides in Spain and now look at you!’
“No disrespect to anyone who works in farming, but it opened my eyes to a whole different world. At Villarreal, I’d existed in this bubble of privilege and financial security that bore no resemblance to the real world. Now I worked side by side with guys who lived hand-to-mouth, breaking their backs just to survive till the end of the week. It was a real eye opener.
“I’m still in touch with a lot of those guys and I’ll never forget those days! It was a hard lesson, but one that changed me completely. I became much more focused and determined. If I had to work myself into the ground every day and run faster than I’d ever run in the past, then that’s what I’d do.”
And it’s what has made him stand out.
When Palazon joined Rayo in January 2020, they were 12th in the second tier. From then until now, he’s scored in the promotion playoff, Los Franjirrojos (the “Red Flashes,”) sit near the European qualification places (they’ve not played in UEFA competitions for 22 years) and the “Isi Factor” has been key in Rayo beating Athletic Club, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia and Barcelona (twice) in LaLiga, and in them reaching the Copa del Rey semifinal. A big impact for this late bloomer.
To complete this comeback story, having been central in that defeat of Real Madrid (who rejected him) just before the World Cup, it would need a cup win, a Spain cap, a big victory in European football — all of those would be rich reward for this talented little peach of a player. If you haven’t caught his show, and this is the first time the name Isi Palazon has crossed your path, then do yourself a favour: watch the ex-fruit farmer who’s just reached football ripeness.
