Ipswich Sign Argentina World Cup Winner Palacios From Leverkusen
Ipswich Town complete a permanent move for the 2022 World Cup winner and former Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, with the fee undisclosed and the club unveiling the signing in a cowboy-themed video.
Ipswich Sign Argentina World Cup Winner Palacios From Leverkusen
Ipswich Town have completed the signing of Exequiel Palacios from Bayer Leverkusen, landing the Argentina international in a permanent move ahead of the club's Premier League return.
The midfielder joins Kieran McKenna's newly promoted squad on a deal BBC Sport reports but for which the fee and contract length have not been disclosed. The Athletic and ESPN also confirm the transfer, with multiple outlets reporting the move as completed on Tuesday, ahead of the new Premier League season.
Ipswich unveiled their new signing through a themed "cowboy-esque" video, per Sky Sports — a piece of transfer-window theatre that closed a deal the club had been working through the week. The midfielder is the headline arrival of an active window for the Suffolk side, which has been reinforcing its squad ahead of top-flight competition, with senior internationals added across the spine.
Palacios leaves Leverkusen after six years in Germany, having joined from River Plate in 2019. He was a regular under Xabi Alonso and part of the Leverkusen squad that went unbeaten in 2023-24 to claim the club's first Bundesliga title — a campaign that also delivered the DFB-Pokal and a run to the Europa League final. The Argentine operated as a central midfielder under Alonso, used in both a deep-lying and box-to-box role across his six seasons in Germany.
He is an Argentina international, a regular in the national squad since breaking through at River Plate, and a member of the 2022 World Cup-winning group in Qatar.
Internationally, Palacios moves to the Premier League for the first time in his career, after stints at River Plate and six years at Bayer Leverkusen. The transfer is one of the most high-profile moves of the window for a newly promoted side, with Ipswich's recruitment underlining the gap they are trying to close between the Championship and the top flight.
For Leverkusen, the departure is the latest in a sequence of exits from the title-winning group. The club have moved aggressively in the window to reshape a squad operating under a new structure, with Palacios among the senior players to move on, in what is part of an ongoing squad evolution following the title-winning campaign.
For Ipswich, the signing is the headline addition of a productive summer. McKenna's side won promotion from the Championship last season and have been actively strengthening their squad ahead of top-flight competition. A World Cup winner and former Bundesliga champion represents a clear statement of intent from a club preparing for life in the top flight — the kind of pedigree a newly promoted side rarely secures in the open market, and one that brings top-level European pedigree to McKenna's midfield from day one.
McKenna now has a player used to the highest level of European football. The Argentine brings a CV that few promoted sides can match, and the practical question is how quickly Palacios adapts to a system built for the Championship, and a league that will demand more of his passing range and defensive work than Leverkusen's Bundesliga title-winning structure.