“I was screwed for more than a year”

Miguel Palencia skilled some of the drastic falls that may be skilled in skilled soccer. Skilled within the youth ranks of Actual Madrid, he reached the height of his profession when he debuted with the primary crew in the course of the ‘Los Galacticos’ period.

It was Vanderlei Luxemburgo who gave him his debut and saved him with the primary crew for a number of months whereas Míchel Salgado was injured. At the moment, he shared a dressing room with figures akin to Ronaldo Nazario, Beckham, Figo, Roberto Carlos, Raúl and Casillas.

“You get used to sharing a locker room with Zidane, with Beckham, you bathe, you go to the bus and also you sit subsequent to Casillas. Raúl picks up and tells you ‘hey, properly…’ In the long run that occurs time and again, properly you get used to it,” the previous participant acknowledges within the Los Fulanos podcast.

Palencia appeared on the covers of the primary sports activities newspapers and appeared destined to consolidate himself within the crew. Actually, when Actual Madrid signed Sergio Ramos from Sevilla, Palencia was one of many choices as a bargaining chip within the operation.

Nonetheless, every little thing modified with the arrival of Míchel González to Castilla, at which period he hoped to make the definitive leap to the primary crew and ended up even dropping the beginning place within the reserve crew.

“In the course of the season they carry up Miguel Torres. I discuss to Míchel and he tells me: ‘You appear somewhat unhappy.’

These phrases killed him psychologically. He was solely 21-22 years previous and, after 13 years on the membership, somebody who had been his idol closed the door on him in such a forceful approach.

On the finish of that season, he signed the termination of his contract, receiving simply 2,000 euros, feeling cheated and with out assist.

“The very fact of being on the high of the wave, that’s, browsing right here like a motherfucker, affected me somewhat bit. And I’ve by no means been a child who believed it or something, however I knew it was there,” admits Miguel Palencia.

After leaving Madrid, he went to play in Belgium in the First Division, but something had already broken inside him. Football began to generate rejection. Later he played in Second B, but the contrast was brutal: from a football where they allowed him to express himself and constantly go up, he went to a results-oriented football where the coach yelled at him just for passing from the center of the field.

On a mental level, Palencia recognizes that he couldn’t take it anymore. The rejection of football became unbearable and he made the decision to retire when he was very young, around 27-28 years old.

€300 per month in Coslada

The fall was dizzying and devastating. A year and a half after making his debut with Real Madrid and appearing on the covers of Marca and AS, Miguel Palencia was working as a physical trainer for a women’s basketball team in Coslada for €300 a month.

“It affected me a lot to leave football like that because they didn’t let me advance. I had a year and a half that was a little screwed in my head. On a psychological, emotional level. I mean, look at what I came to. So that, wow, is screwed, screwed,” he confesses.

Palencia admitted that he had “bad experiences on a human level in the world of football” with people who did not help, who even tried to harm, and with envy.

He recognizes that he was mainly responsible for what happened to him by losing focus at a critical moment, but he also identifies that he lacked tools and psychological support.

While studying Physical Activity and Sports Sciences (INEF), he decided that he had to do something related to his passion to be happy. Physical preparation became that way: he liked to take care of himself, be in shape, and maintain that link with the sport that had been his life.

Little by little he grew professionally. He went from those 300 euros in Coslada to building a high performance and health center where he works with professional footballers. He also joined as a commentator on Real Madrid TV, where he has been for more than 10 years, thus adding more than 25 years linked to the club as a player and communicator.