
The Ivory Coast were a goal down on 38 minutes. Franck Kessié levelled just after the hour mark and Sebastien Haller netted the winner at 2-1 on 81 minutes. Kossounou was in the starting line-up and he played the full 90 minutes. It is the third AFCON win for the Ivorians and Ivory Coast is the first country since Egypt in 2006 to lift the trophy in their own country.
Ivory Coast reached the knockout stage as one of the four best third-placed teams in the groups. That was followed by a win against Senegal in the Round of 16, victory over Mali in the quarter-finals and DR Congo in the semi-finals.
Bayer 04 congratulates Odilon Kossounou and wishes him a great time celebrating with his teammates. The whole club is looking forward to his return.

Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan deal for Jeanuel Belocian to join fellow Bundesliga club Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old defender’s contract in Leverkusen runs until 30 June 2029.
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After Leverkusen's eSports team spectacularly won the first showdown in the history of the VBL Club Championship last year, two rather sobering editions followed with two early exits. Now, in Showdown Four, cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr have once again made it into the offline knockout phase. And in this phase, Bochum awaits on Monday, 2 February (live on the VBL's Twitch channel from 16:00 CET). Here's a look at their opponents and what might happen next.
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SAB-P GmbH is to become Bayer 04 Leverkusen's first official inclusion partner. The company, which has previously been involved in the club's Business Club, is underlining its social commitment to inclusion with an agreement that runs until 31 May 2027. Among other things, it will be the shirt sponsor of the Inclusion Team from the 2026/27 season onwards.
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The Werkself were impressive in the 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt with clinical finishing and a first half "at a high level" that head coach Kasper Hjulmand draws a lot of positives from. The same should apply to Arthur, who scored for the first time in the Bundesliga. Edmond Tapsoba, for his part, was happy about his 250th appearance in a Bayer 04 jersey. "I think we're slowly finding our feet again," said goalscorer Malik Tillman, summing up the performance. The Werkself review.
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