CONCACAF
Santiago Giménez could break Pulisic record for most expensive CONCACAF transfer in history
At 22-years-old, the Mexican striker could beat ‘Captain America’s’ transfer record as the most expensive deal ever involving a CONCACAF player.
The astonishing form that Mexican forward Santiago Giménez is experiencing for Feyenoord has not gone unnoticed. The 22-year-old managed to sneak into the list of the top 5 scorers across the world for 2023, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, true goal-scoring monsters of football.
As such, top clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid and various Premier League teams have followed him closely. A potential transfer to any elite side around Europe would mean that Santiago Giménez, were he to make the move, could indeed break the transfer record for a CONCACAF player, a number that is currently set by Christian Pulisic, when Chelsea paid around $70 million to Borussia Dortmund back in 2019.
Will Giménez break Puslic’s record?
ESPN’s Hércules Gómez had Dennis te Kloese, CEO of Giménez’s Feyenoord as a guest on the VAMOS Podcast, and the Dutch director commented that he sees a deal involving Santi Giménez breaking the figure set by the USMNT international when he made the jump to the Premier League.
“Can we expect Santi to break Christian Pulisic’s transfer record for around $70 million?”, Gómez questioned.
‘I recommended Santi to think more about a summer transfer’
“That amount is achievable, I have discussed with the family that it probably would not be the best move in the winter, because there will be no pre-season”, the CEO said, “I recommended him (Santi) to think more about a summer transfer, if he can continue scoring he will be fine, to be honest. There are big clubs looking at him, if you look at the scouting list that ask for tickets for the best games...” said Dennis te Kloese.
How much is Santiago Giménez worth?
We will see if in winter an offer arrives for the Mexican striker, who seems to be the only current player who could beat the record transfer fee that belongs to ‘Captain America’, who currently plays for Milan. Pulisic, after a rough spell in England, is back to enjoying football at club level once again and is shining for the Serie A side this season.
As of today, Santi Giménez is valued at $55 million, while Pulisic is valued at $35 million, according to the most recent figures from Transfermarkt.
LA Galaxy missed out on ‘not good enough’ Giménez
Curiously, the director also opened up on LA Galaxy’s rejection of a move for Santiago Giménez when the striker was at Cruz Azul. Dennis te Kloese was the sporting director of Cruz Azul at the time when Giménez was breaking through, and after some games at StubHub Center, te Kloese says he recommended the Mexican forward for LA Galaxy, only for a club employee to reject the proposal as he was “not good enough”.
“Somebody said that, I can’t say who said it”, he added, “then we said we’ll try at Feyenoord, it’s a little lower level and we’ll see how he goes”. It’s safe to say that things have gone quite well since then.