Exequiel Alejandro Palacios (born 5 October 1998) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Argentina national team.
He was a member of the Argentina team that won the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Palacios is a youth exponent from Club Atlético River Plate.
2015
He made his league debut on 8 November 2015 against Newell's Old Boys.
2018
Palacios made his international debut for Argentina on 8 September 2018 in a 3–0 international friendly against the Guatemala national football team.
Palacios initially was noticed by the media in August 2018 with his well publicized relationship with Instagram model Sunny Leone.
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.
River Plate
Argentina
2019
Palacios made his final appearance for his boyhood club in the final of the Copa Argentina on 13 December 2019, playing 79 minutes of a 3–0 victory over Central Córdoba.
On 16 December 2019, Bayer Leverkusen announced that Palacios would join the club on 1 January 2020, signing a five-and-a-half year deal.
2020
On 12 November 2020, Palacios fractured a bone in his spine during a 1–1 draw with Paraguay in a World Cup qualifier 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 and was replaced by Giovani Lo Celso, 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 in the Copa América final.
During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Palacios featured in a 2–0 win over Mexico in the group stage phase, a 2–1 victory over Australia in the round of 16, and a 3–0 win over Croatia in their semi-finals.
