FEYENOORD
Arne Slot on Santiago Giménez: “We expect more from him”
The Mexican forward has had a difficult start to 2024 with the Dutch club.
Santiago Giménez is struggling in front of goal after an excellent first half to the 2023-24 season. After a strong start, the Mexico international has started 2024 with a dip in form. Feyenoord currently find themselves ten points behind leaders PSV in the Eredivisie and they host Roma in the Europa League in a week and are still alive in the cup.
“Like the rest of the team, against AZ he was very bad on the ball,” Feyenoord coach Arne Slot said last weekend. “He contributed a lot last season and he also scored a lot of goals this season. That’s why he has a lot of credit, also among the fans. We expect more from him and he knows it.”
Giménez on the rise
In the first part of the season, the 22-year-old striker managed to make a name for himself as one of the best strikers in Europe after scoring 20 goals and registering five assists in 22 matches for Feyenoord - scoring a goal every 76 minutes. His value has also risen from €25 million last June to €50 million, according to Transfermarkt.
However, 2024 for Giménez is proving to be a tough nut to crack. In five games, he has found the net on one occasion, going from converting 45% of his shots to now 25%. In January, several Premier League teams tried to sign him without success due to the club’s high demands. Despite his current dip, everything seems to indicate that he will, sooner rather than later, make the leap to one of Europe’s heavyweights.