Fernando Carro: "It's great we will have another World Cup winner under the Bayer Cross next year. Exequiel Palacios was an important part of the team that obviously has their outstanding star in Lionel Messi. We are proud of Pala and everything he's achieved."
Simon Rolfes: "We are very happy for our Pala who will be back in Leverkusen next year as a World Cup winner. It's the biggest title you can win and Pala can be proud of that. He helped contribute in an Argentinian team that developed an incredible resilience in this tournament. And it wasn't just in the final that you could see how much this team and how much a whole country wanted to win the title. They gave their all and deservedly won the World Cup."
Rudi Völler: "Congratulations to our World Cup winner Exequiel Palacios. He was commanding and reliable in his games at the World Cup and he delivered everything Argentina expected of him. Messi provided the magic but a side needs team players like Pala to be successful."
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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