€32m new signing – Can Gimenez continue his remarkable goalscoring record at AC Milan?

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Set to face former club 

©TM/IMAGO

In a fascinating twist of fate, one of new AC Milan signing Santiago Gimenez’s first games for his new club will be against the club he just left when his side take on Feyenoord in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie. In front of what will likely be a loud and disgruntled home crowd at “De Kuip” in Rotterdam, the Mexican striker will have to shrug off complaints from fans of his old club and show that he’s ready to make the step up to being a dependable striker for one of Europe’s leading clubs. After all, following an impressive spell in the Netherlands, the 22-year-old striker’s €32 million move to Northern Italy will depend entirely on that very question: can Gimenez make the step up to a top European league? 

Indeed, since most of Europe’s top clubs will have Tuesday evening off, many managers, scouts and even club directors may opt to take in Milan’s clash with the Eredivisie giants to see how the young striker does. After all, prior to his move to Milan, Gimenez was heavily linked with moves to Arsenal, West Ham, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest over the course of the last two years. Like Hakim Ziyech, Noni Madueke, Memphis Depay and Cody Gakpo before him, the Mexican talent will now need to prove that his goal rate in the Dutch top-flight can translate well to one of Europe’s top leagues. And when we take a look at his goal scoring record to date, there’s certainly plenty for Milan fans to get excited about. 

Gimenez began his career at Mexican side Cruz Azul, where he quickly made a name for himself in the club’s U-19 team by bagging 22 goals in 55 games, before making the step up to the Mexican club’s first team. Over the course of four seasons in Liga MX, Gimenez bagged a rather paltry 13 goals in 39 league games, but kicked off his final season at the club with five goals in the first five games of the season, before Feyenoord swooped in and signed the player for €6 million after the first half of the league campaign. The young forward unquestionably hit the ground running in the Netherlands with 15 goals in 32 league games for his new club, most notably picking up more goals in all competitions over the course of 2023 than any player in Europe’s top leagues aside from Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane. Gimenez then went one step further by picking up 23 goals in 30 league games in his second season at the club, by which point he had quickly become a sensation in European football. 

Having averaged 0.8 goals per 90 minutes of league football during his time in the Eredivisie, Milan will be hoping their new striker can repeat the impressive trick in the Italian top-flight. The San Siro club currently languish outside the top six in Serie A and much of that is due to the team having no notable talisman up front. To date, the club’s top goalscorer in the league is none other than central midfielder Tijjani Reijnders with just seven goals in 21 games. And the closest Milan have to a player matching Gimenez’s impressive goal scoring rate in the Netherlands is USMNT star Christian Pulisic, whose six goals in 18 games gives him an average of 0.42 goals per 90 minutes of league football. The need for the new Mexican signing to hit the ground running is only further highlighted by the fact that the club’s second most efficient goalscorer, Álvaro Morata, recently departed for Galatasary last week. 

So will Gimenez rise to the occasion? While it’s usually quite hard to gauge a player’s effectiveness from one league to the other, a better guide may be the Mexican forward’s record in European competitions. During his time at Feyenoord, Gimenez made 11 appearances in the Europa League and nine in the Champions League, where he bagged a total of 13 goals and a further two assists. That, remarkably, gives Gimenez a goals per 90 average of 0.98 in all European competitions. And even when we filter the Europa League games out of the equation, it still gives the striker an average of 0.97 goals per 90. Which, as we can see, is even higher than his goal scoring rate in the Dutch top-flight. And having already scored against Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Lille in this season’s competition, there’s little doubt that he clearly has no qualms about taking on bigger and better defenders. 

As such, Gimenez’s record in Europe may have not only been a particularly impressive feat but perhaps the run of form that convinced Milan to make the move for Gimenez in the January window. After all, if the Mexican star can score goals against the best teams in Europe for Feyenoord, there’s no reason why he can’t do it for Milan against the best that the Serie A has to offer. But in the meantime, Gimenez may need to accept the unfavourable task of impressing his new club by scoring against his old one.