Last summer, Ezequiel Fernandez was still on Bayer 04’s transfer list, but the midfielder has since secured a regular place in the team – and has now even made his debut for World Cup runners-up Argentina.
It is a minor football fairy tale – or the story of Saul becoming Paul – that Ezequiel Fernandez has been living through in recent weeks and months. After all, the Argentine midfielder at Bayer 04 Leverkusen had fallen out of favour at the club in the first half of the year and had slipped right to the top of the transfer list over the summer. But instead of leaving, the Paris 2024 Olympian has now experienced the highlight of his career so far: Fernandez made his debut for the Argentine national team in the early hours of Thursday morning.
In April, he refused to come on as a substitute for Bayer – and fell out of favour
In the 4–0 win over Bolivia, the defensive midfielder came on as a substitute for Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister in the 74th minute with the score at 3–0, thus making his debut for the Albiceleste – if you like, two years late – having already been called up in autumn 2024 but not having featured.
Back in the spring, such a meteoric rise for the left-footed player – as well as his first appearance for the national team of the current World Cup runners-up and title winners of 2022, 1986 and 1978 – was not really foreseeable. Fernandez had, after all, squandered a fair bit of goodwill in his first season with Bayer Leverkusen. Having at least hinted at his qualities in the first half of the season, the 24-year-old was largely confined to the role of substitute in the second half of the campaign. And during this period, on 11 April, the player committed a massive blunder when, apparently out of frustration at his situation, he refused to come on as a substitute in injury time during Leverkusen’s 1–0 win in Dortmund.
After just one season, Fernández was high on the list of players to be sold
The then manager, Kasper Hjulmand, had intended to bring Fernandez on to run down the clock and see out the narrow lead. However, the Argentine – who later claimed he had not wanted to come on due to back problems – apparently refused to play out of wounded pride. This incident severely damaged the player’s reputation within the club and made him a candidate for sale.
All the more so as Fernandez, whom Bayer 04 had signed in the summer of 2025 from the Saudi Arabian club Al-Qadisiya for a transfer fee of 30 million euros, had not had a particularly convincing season up to that point and was on the wane. And given that the Bundesliga side, having signed Hertha’s top prospect Kennet Eichhorn (17) for the current season, wanted to offload one of the five candidates at the time for the double six role, the Argentine was a prime candidate for departure.
From problem child to Argentina international in less than six months
But then everything changed. From the start of pre-season training under new manager Carles Martinez, Fernandez showed himself to be in good shape and form, so much so that the player – who had almost been written off mentally – secured a regular place in the Spaniard’s starting eleven. Following a poor performance in the opening-day defeat at Elversberg, the Argentine consistently put in at least decent performances in the league against Union Berlin, as well as in Augsburg (2–2) and against Leipzig, which have now resulted in Fernandez – once considered a problem case – becoming a full international for Argentina in less than six months.
