Byron Palacios

Byron Palacios scored his fastest goal thirty-three seconds after coming on for Emelec against Macará in 2018. He had started out at Colón, scoring four times in sixteen matches in the Serie B before moving to Rocafuerte in the second tier.

His return to Emelec did not lead anywhere, and the contract lapsed. In June 2024, Palacios accused El Nacional's president, Marco Pazos, of misleading him, saying he had never signed the four-year contract the club claimed and had only a verbal agreement on payments that went unmet; he said the club owed him two and a half months' wages. He left as a free agent.

Across 2025 he scored nineteen goals in fifty-three matches in all competitions, among the club's leading scorers, and lifted the Copa Ecuador that year. He has also featured in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana. Through to 22 August 2026, he has added seven goals in twenty-eight appearances, including one in the Supercopa de Ecuador, taking his overall tally for the club to twenty-nine goals in ninety-three matches.

Palacios has never been capped by Ecuador's senior national side, though he has said he wants the call.