Facundo Medina Joins Bayer Leverkusen in 25 Million Euro Move

It's a long road from Villa Fiorito to the Bundesliga, and Facundo Medina has just completed it. The Argentine defender, runner-up at the World Cup barely a month ago, is now a Bayer Leverkusen player after leaving Olympique de Marseille in a deal that, between the fixed fee and performance-based add-ons, is worth around 25 million euros.

The German club unveiled the defender this Tuesday on a contract running through June 30, 2031, and handed him the number 2 jersey. Medina, who stands 1.84 meters tall and is 27 years old, can play both left back and center back, a versatility that Leverkusen values highly.

Simon Rolfes, Bayer 04's sporting director, didn't hide his excitement about the Argentine's arrival:

With Facundo Medina we've signed a very experienced professional who will be an immediate boost for our team thanks to his quality and strong mentality. He's a very strong player in duels: combative and aggressive. Facundo's qualities broaden the profile of our squad with an important element. We're happy to have him in our ranks.Simon Rolfes

From Maradona's Neighborhood to Europe

Medina's story begins far from the lights of the Bundesliga. He was born in Villa Fiorito, the same neighborhood in southern Buenos Aires where Diego Maradona grew up, and came up through River Plate's youth ranks. There he shared a reserve squad with Exequiel Palacios, now fittingly his teammate at Leverkusen. While Palacios moved up to River's first team in 2017, Medina took a different path: he joined Talleres de Cordoba, made his professional debut, and, as Piero Hincapie would later do, used that club as a springboard to Europe.

That jump took him to RC Lens in 2020, at age 21. The French club had just returned to Ligue 1 and found in Medina, alongside Loic Sade, a center-back pairing that proved key to establishing the club in the top flight. He spent five full seasons in northern France, including his Champions League debut, before moving to Olympique de Marseille in 2025.

At Marseille, Medina first arrived on loan from Lens for 2 million euros, with a purchase option of around 20 million that the Marseille club ended up exercising after a strong first year. In his final season there, he played in 26 official matches, added one assist, scored no goals, picked up nine yellow cards without a single red, and logged 2,015 minutes on the field.

At the 2026 World Cup, he started against Algeria and Austria in the group stage and against Cape Verde in the round of 32, and came off the bench against Egypt in the round of 16 and in the final against Spain, which Argentina lost 1-0. Just a month after that final, the defender chose Leverkusen as his top destination and quickly sealed the agreement with the German club, where he'll now team up with two fellow Argentines: Palacios and Equi Fernandez.