Exequiel Alejandro Palacios (; born 5 October 1998) is an Argentine professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

and the Argentina national team. He was a member of the Argentina team that won the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Club career

Palacios is a youth exponent from

Club Atlético River Plate Club Atlético River Plate, commonly known as River Plate, is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Núñez, Buenos Aires, Núñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1901, the club is named after the English name for the city ...

. He made his league debut on 8 November 2015 against

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

. Palacios made his final appearance for his boyhood club in the final of the

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), with the aim of qual ...

on 13 December 2019, playing 79 minutes of a 3–0 victory over Central Córdoba.

Bayer Leverkusen

On 16 December 2019,

announced that Palacios would join the club on 1 January 2020, signing a five-and-a-half year deal.

International career

Palacios made his international debut for

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

on 8 September 2018 in a 3–0 international friendly against the

Guatemala national football team The Guatemala national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Guatemala) represents Guatemala in men's international football and is controlled by the ''Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala''. Founded in 1919, it has been affiliat ...

. On 12 November 2020, Palacios fractured a bone in his spine during a 1–1 draw with

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

and was expected be out for three months. Palacios sustained the injury in an aerial duel with Angel Romero in the first half of the contest at

La Bombonera The Alberto José Armando Stadium is a football stadium located in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Widely known as La Bombonera (; en, The chocolate box) due to its shape, with a "flat" stand on one side of the pitch and three steep stands rou ...

and was replaced by

Giovani Lo Celso Giovani Lo Celso (born 9 April 1996) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a central midfielder for La Liga club Villarreal CF, Villarreal, on loan from Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Ho ...

, who took the corner from which Nicolas Gonzalez headed home Argentina's equaliser. On 10 July 2021, Palacios played as a second-half substitute in Argentina's 1–0 victory over

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in the Copa América final. During the

, Palacios featured in a 2–0 win over

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in the group stage phase, a 2–1 victory over

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the round of 16, and a 3–0 win over

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

in their semi-finals.

Personal life

Palacios initially was noticed by the media in August 2018 with his well publicized relationship with Instagram model Sol Pérez. It quickly became public though that around the same time Palacios and Pérez had started their relationship, Palacios had also begun dating amateur actress, singer, and dancer Juliana Orellano. Both Pérez and Orellano quickly ended their relationship with Palacios after finding out that he was dating the other. There was more drama however as on 21 August it became known that Palacios had been in relationship with a neighborhood friend Karen Gramajo, a manicurist, for four years. All three women angrily took to social media to protest Palacios' disloyalty.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

River Plate *

: 2016–17, 2018–19 *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana ( pt, CONMEBOL Recopa Sul-Americana), known also as the Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as the Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club association football, football compe ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Argentina *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions The CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, previously known officially as the European/South American Nations Cup and commonly as the Artemio Franchi Cup, is an official intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palacios, Exequiel 1998 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers 2021 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players Club Atlético River Plate footballers Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Argentine Primera División players Bundesliga players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Footballers from Tucumán Province Copa América-winning players Copa Libertadores-winning players