Wilson Palacios

ruiseal

Honduran Authorities believe they have recovered the remains of a body believed to be the brother of Tottenham`s Wilson Palacios.

Sixteen year old Edwin Rene Palacios, was abducted from his home in October 2007 and although it is believed that the Palacios family paid a substantial ransom, he was never returned.

Acting on information received from convicted gang members, who confessed to the killing. Police recovered a body of a young man in a mountain area, 250 kilometres north of the Honduran capital and although it has yet to be confirmed that the body is Wilson`s brother, the evidence seems to indicate it at this time.

As yet Tottenham have made no comment as to whether, Palacios will play any part in today`s game at Everton, but we have to assume it will be unlikely.

This tragedy follows closely after the murder of Jermain Defoe`s half brother and will surely have an impact of the team, but at times like this, somehow football seems irrelevant...

Antisocialiser

jesus that is crazy...

ruiseal

I think I read somewhere recently that the family had paid 500k (dollars, pounds?) for his safe return.
Must be very hard on Wilson; but I think they feared the worst as time went on.

froosh69

shocking...Between Palacios and Defoe losing family members, the morale in the dressing room must be fairly depressing.

tippspur

Sad news for Wilson and family..

Seillejet

Very sad news. I think it is a huge measure of the man that he got the news at 1 am and waited until 7 am before telling Redknapp as he didn't want to wake him.

Also see King was involved in an "alleged assault" last night. The players get some stick when out and about.

blinding

Seillejet wrote: »

Very sad news. I think it is a huge measure of the man that he got the news at 1 am and waited until 7 am before telling Redknapp as he didn't want to wake him.

Deepest sympathy to Wilson and his family, and footballers often get stick but Wilson not wanting to wake up Harry Redknap until 7 am shows a different side from this footballer.

The wealth from football unfortunately brought misfortune to Wilson and his family.

Frisbee

Only just heard about this now.
Shocking and my thoughts are with him and his family

Spider_Baby!

I was very saddened to hear this. My heart goes out to Wilson, and I hope he comes back next season stronger than ever.

keane=cock

its madness. rumours are that the family paid the ransom n all!

really hard time for some spurs players at the min, (defoe, palacios n king)

hope wilson recovers from this quickly. redknapp was signing his praises that he wouldnt wake him up til 7 after he heard at 1.

Meathfan

Hope he comes back soon

curraghyid

courtesy of indo

Tuesday May 12 2009
Wilson Palacios is known here only as a splendid midfield operator, quick and strong and with a fine eye for attacking opportunities who is spoken of with affection and admiration by the two English managers for whom he has performed with nothing less than good-hearted effort and great professionalism.
There is, however, some knowledge of where he comes from, which is very helpful in understanding how it was that his behaviour last weekend in the face of a terrible family tragedy shone with touching humility and stoicism and in such contrast to that of some of his more famous co-workers.
Palacios is one of five football-playing brothers who are now four after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Edwin (16) in Palacios' home country of Honduras. This is a place where more than half the seven-million-odd inhabitants live below the poverty line and the trials of life include being very careful about how you express support for a particular political party, on account of not wanting to finish up bullet-riddled in a neighbouring mangrove swamp, not to mention the annual hurricanes which periodically flatten towns, knock down bridges and spread disease.
This certainly puts into perspective Palacios' (24) decision to wait out the night in the lobby of a Liverpool hotel until he deemed it an acceptable hour to wake his Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp with the news of the discovery of his brother's body -- and seek clearance to fly home to be among his family.
Redknapp's account was, perhaps not surprisingly, touched with a degree of awe.
He was a little stunned by the consideration shown to him by the player, and no doubt this reaction was heightened considerably a few hours later when he was informed of the alleged conduct of another of his players, Ledley King, outside a Soho nightclub.
Redknapp, who spends quite a bit of his time monitoring the condition of King's injury-afflicted knees, can only have been further saddened by the charge that the England player, after allegedly throwing out racist insults at a bouncer, had been at pains to point out the sharply different wage scales enjoyed by a Premier League superstar and an overweight doorman.
noted
Some Manchester United fans may also have noted a contrast between Palacios' control and the self-indulgent emotions of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, who between them couldn't muster a fraction of the respect for their manager Alex Ferguson that the man from Honduras gave to Redknapp each second he delayed his call.
Of course, the parallels here are far from exact and making a paragon of Palacios at the expense of the others is to create all kinds of hostages to fate.
However, we have not been exactly inundated recently with evidence that the average football star has much sense of the world beyond his own generous slice of it.
Palacios' behaviour implied something quite different.
It spoke of great respect for his manager and, perhaps, some idea of the magnitude of the good fortune that he enjoyed on his journey from the coastal town of El Ceiba, first to Red Star Belgrade, where a satisfactory contract was not forthcoming, and then a trial at Arsenal and a firm recommendation from Arsene Wenger to Steve Bruce at Birmingham City.
Bruce, who eagerly took Palacios to Wigan Athletic and then sold him to Spurs only with great reluctance, says: "Wilson is a tremendous pro, the kind of player you want to build a team around."
Bruce's verdict is echoed by Tottenham coach Joe Jordan, who says: "Wilson is a quiet lad -- but everything you want in a player. He is dedicated and plays the game in a great spirit. Apart from being creative, he is also a first-rate tackler -- he puts his foot in and gets the ball, and in this day and age gives up a remarkably low number of free kicks. Everyone at the club is feeling for him now."
Ransom
The fact that the Palacios family paid a ransom demand of around £125,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to save the boy gives one insight into the harshness, and precariousness of life in Wilson's homeland.
Others were available back in November 1981, when Honduras, the home nation in a Concacaf knock-out tournament, played their way, for the only time, into the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain, along with fierce rivals El Salvador, with whom the world's only fully-fledged 'football war' had been fought 12 years earlier.
There were other factors, including border problems created by the civil war in El Salvador, but it just happened that matters boiled over at the time of a match between the nations and rioting by the fans. It was also true that if you wanted to see football as a metaphor for escape, and hopes, beyond a mean and dangerous life, those games up on the hill in the old stadium in the capital of Tegucigalpa in 1981 served well enough.
El Salvador reported that several of their players had recently had brothers killed back home, one of the bodies being found in a rubbish bin, and Haiti's coach said that he expected none of his players to return home. It was the time of the Haitian boat people washing up in Florida, more of them dead than alive, and the old coach said that in a very real sense his players were striving not for a burst of limelight in Spain but new lives. They didn't get them, certainly not via the football field.
Haiti finished bottom of the table, with no wins and two goals against nine. Part of the problem was a lack of proper nourishment.
Mexico, the hot favourites, finished third and thus didn't qualify. They were advised that no-one should return directly to their homes, and least of all the superstar Hugo Sanchez, later of Real Madrid. There was every chance that the houses would be burned down.
In the main square of Tegucigalpa, child beggars swarmed outside the main hotel; those of them who could find no room in the house sponsored by the wife of the president, sleeping in cardboard boxes. But the city and the villages were en fete when Honduras, led by the inspiring Ramon 'El Primitivo' Maradiega, fought a draw with Mexico and won through to Spain.
The body of a young worker-priest from Quebec had been found shot and dumped in a lime pit and there was often the sound of gunfire at night -- why? "There is always one reason or another here," shrugged a taxi driver -- but finally the footballers of Honduras had made their mark.
This all happened before Wilson Palacios was born, but then the odds are that as he sat in the plush chair of his superior Liverpool hotel, and waited for the dawn to signal the time to call his manager, he reflected that some things in life do not change.
Not so much, anyway, that some men don't still have much better reasons than others to celebrate their good luck.

tippspur

Interesting read

Wendell Gee

Palacios showed class and humility at a very difficult time. He's a legend in the making, and a future Spurs captain. We should (and I've been saying this since February) tie him up on a very long term deal.

Meathfan

Fair play to him....The game needs players to show more respect to thier clubs.

limerickyidd

So shocking after the Defoe families recent tragedy. What a gentleman to wiat till 7am to tell Harry. He is truly a star in the making and has impressed me in every game he has played. My thoughts are with him at this tough time.