Santiago Giménez: Feyenoord’s Mexican Sharpshooter in Attack
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the 18th of April 2001, Santiago Giménez chose to represent the Mexico national team having moved to Mexico at the age of three with his father. Giménez followed in the footsteps of his father Christian Eduardo Giménez a former professional footballer born in Argentina but who played for the Mexico national team.
Santiago Giménez signed a four year contract with Feyenoord on 29 July 2022 from Mexico top division side Cruz Azul and announced his arrival to the Eredivisie with a goal in Feyenoord’s 4-0 win against FC Emmen on 27 August 2022 and by setting up Jacob Rasmussen for the club’s third goal in that game. 12 days later precisely on 3 September he made his Europa League debut, almost inspiring a comeback for Feyenoord after they went 4 goals down and scoring a brace against Italian side Lazio after coming on as a substitute in the 64th minute of the game.
His off-the-ball movements and great positioning in the penalty area coupled with his stellar finishing ability is a pointer to how dangerous and clinical Giménez can be in front of goal, scoring 15 times and providing 2 assists in 32 Eredivisie games in the 2022-23 season.
He finished fourth in Eredivisie’s top scorers chart, helping Feyenoord to secure their 16th Eredivisie title and their first since 2016-17 season, but he was also impressive in Feyenoord’s Europa League campaign, finding the back of the net 5 times in 9 games including a goal in their 7-1 thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk in the second leg round of 16 fixture on 16 March 2023, Giménez was also instrumental for Feyenoord in the KNVB Cup, scoring a total of 3 goals in 4 games in the campaign.
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The 22-year-old Mexican foward possesses tremendous dribbling skills enabling speedy entry into opponents penalty area and being able to play in tight spaces. He’s continued in his remarkable form this season having already scored 18 goals and provided 3 assists in 15 Eredivisie games currently sitting joint top of the goal scorers table with AZ Alkmaar’s Vangelis Pavlidis. Santiago Giménez’s goals scored per 90 minutes currently stands at 1.33, with 3 assists his goal involvement stands at 21 and equates to 1.55 per 90 minutes. An impressive improvement from last season.
In the UEFA Champions League, Giménez scored 2 goals and provided 1 assist in the 4 games he featured in for Feyenoord, recording a brace in Feyenoord’s 3-1 home win against Lazio on Matchday 3 on 25 October, although Feyenoord eventually finished third in Group E behind Lazio and Atlético Madrid and having to drop to the Europa League.
He has a total of 50 shots in the Eredivisie, 29 were on target while the other 21 were off target which points to a goal in every 2.95 shots taken and 3.79 shots per 90 minutes. Those stats highlights his ball striking ability and confidence in opposition’s penalty area, A clear example of a player who is ambitious and obsessed with goal scoring.
A team player with his moves vitally opening up spaces for teammates and has a total of 136 of 190 passes competed, a pass completion rate of 71.58%, with 16 key passes so far this season in the Eredivisie, indicating 1.21 key passes in each game leading to significant goal scoring chances.
He possesses the ability to read the game tracking back to help in ball recovery, engaging and winning duels regaining possession and initiating attack. He has drawn the attention of top European clubs with multiple reports linking him to the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea. A prolific striker every manager would love to have in their team.
By: Ogenyi Paul / @234programmer
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Soccrates Images – Getty Images