leg, leading to two months of inactivity. Palermo never regained his form, and after two and half seasons with Villarreal, on 20 August 2003, he left the club. The following day Palermo signed a contract with Real Betis, but in March 2004, after very little success with the club, he left. Later that month he signed with Alavés of the Spanish second division. Back to Boca Juniors On 13 July 2004, after three and a half years of playing in Spain for Villarreal, Real Betis, and Alavés, Palermo returned to Boca Juniors. On 17 December he scored his 100th goal with Boca on the final of the 2004 Copa Sudamericana a 2–0 victory over Bolívar. Palermo, once again back in top form, remained one of the best scorers in the Argentine league, scoring 11 goals in three consecutive matches (2006 Clausura, 2006 Apertura and top scorer of the 2007 Clausura). During the 2007 Clausura tournament he had several memorable moments, on 25 February he scored a half pitch goal in the last seconds of a 3–1 victory over Independiente and two weeks later, on 10 March, he scored three goals against his former team Estudiantes in a 3–1 Boca victory at La Plata. It was the fourth hat-trick of his career. A game later, on 18 March, he scored a career-high of four goals in the 5–1 victory against Gimnasia de la Plata, Estudiantes de La Plata's arch-rivals. The following season the 2007 Apertura, he continued to be among the Argentine league top scorers with 13 goals. His best game that season was on 16 September, in a game against Banfield, in which he scored four goals, in the 6–0 Boca victory. Palermo scored his fifth career hat-trick in a 3–0 Boca Juniors victory, a must-win game played in Jalisco, Mexico, against Atlas on 21 May 2008. At the beginning of the 2008 Apertura, on 24 August he suffered yet another serious injury, this time he injured his anterior cruciate and tore his medial collateral ligament during the 2–1 victory against Lanús, with an expected recovery period of 5 to 8 months. After this was known, Argentine coach Alfio Basile said that he had chosen him to play for the national team for the following match in the World Cup qualifiers Palermo's first goal since his injury came on the fourth game he played, during a 3–1 victory over Huracán