
Jeremie, what's your impression of the team at the moment?
Frimpong: Training is good and the team is generally in good shape. We've won the last three games and built up a lot of confidence. That's how we have to, and want to, carry on up to the winter break.
You scored your first Bundesliga goal in the 3-1 win against RB Leipzig.
Frimpong: It was really great and also very important in a game against a very good opponent. But I’m not resting on that moment of success but continuing to work hard on my game. There's a long way to go in this season.

You joined Bayer 04 from Celtic a year ago. What differences have you identified up to now between the Scottish Premiership and the Bundesliga?
Frimpong: It took a while to settle in here but it was a big step forward for me. Every game in the Bundesliga is hard-fought, intensive and tough. You can never take it easy even against the team bottom of the table. There are lots of young, fresh and quick lads here while opponents in Scotland often included several older players.
Your former club from Glasgow was one of the two top teams in Scotland. You often had to go into every game with a very attacking approach as the opponents used to defend deep.
Frimpong: At Celtic we usually always had the ball except for possibly against Rangers, Hibs or Aberdeen. As a defender I was mostly involved up front as well. I have to be everywhere in the Bundesliga now: attacking and defending. But that's great fun and it presents me with new challenges.
This season, you've got the most minutes on the pitch of all outfield players in the Werkself squad. How’s your fitness going into the run-in to the end of the year?
Frimpong: Of course, you do get heavy legs but you mustn't think about it. You have to recover well, sleep a lot and eat well. In addition: I love this game. Being on the pitch in every match is the best thing that can happen to a football player.

After six and a half years, Exequiel Palacios is leaving the Bundesliga and moving from Bayer 04 to the Premier League. The Argentine, who as a Werkself player won the World Cup with his national team four years ago and finished as runners-up at this summer’s tournament, will play for newly promoted English side Ipswich Town with immediate effect. The 27-year-old, whose contract in Leverkusen was due to run until 30 June 2030, joined Bayer 04 in January 2020 as a promising young talent. He steadily developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the German top flight.
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When Exequiel Palacios moved from the Argentinian club River Plate to Bayer Leverkusen on 1 January 2020, the then 21-year-old could not have imagined just how successful the next six and a half years would be for him. Pala, as he is known, had already won the Copa Libertadores – the most prestigious competition in South American club football – with River Plate. But there were still so many more trophies to come.
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To mark Exequiel Palacios’s departure, we’ve put together a compilation of the midfielder’s finest and most important goals from his six-and-a-half years at the club.
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Newly promoted SV 07 Elversberg will begin the 2026/27 season as Bundesliga club number 59. The Saarland club start their first Bundesliga campaign at home to the Werkself on Saturday, 29 August (kick-off 15:30 CEST) at the URSAPHARM Arena on Kaiserlinde, which is currently being rebuilt. For one Leverkusen player in the ‘Elv’ line-up, the clash will be a special reunion. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Ernest Poku is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen to play in the Turkish Süper Lig. The club has loaned the Dutch winger to Beşiktaş for one year. If certain criteria are met, the Istanbul club – who finished fourth in the Turkish top flight last season – will be obliged to make the move permanent.
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