Santiago Gimenez: From Feyenoord Star to Milan's Struggling Forward
Santiago Gimenez arrived at San Siro with numbers that usually travel only in headlines and scouting reports. Sixty-five goals in 105 games for Feyenoord, back-to-back seasons beyond the 20-goal mark, and a reputation as one of Europe’s most ruthless young finishers.
He chose Milan over a queue of suitors, including serious interest from the Premier League. This was not just a career move. It was emotional. A boyhood Milan fan stepping into the stadium he had grown up watching on television, pulling on the shirt he used to dream about.
The script, on paper, wrote itself. Reality did not.
From Rotterdam roar to San Siro silence
Gimenez’s first months in Italy offered a glimpse, not a statement. Six goals after his February 2025 arrival hinted at potential, but never quite caught fire. The adaptation was chalked up to the usual challenges: a new league, new language, new tactical demands. A striker stepping out of his comfort zone, trying to find the same rhythm he had owned in Rotterdam.
Then came the real blow.
In his first full season, injury ripped the momentum out from under him. Five months out. For a penalty-box striker who lives off rhythm, timing and repetition, it was a brutal interruption. When he did return, the sharpness wasn’t there, the confidence flickered, and the numbers told a stark story: just one goal, in the Coppa Italia, across the entire campaign.
The timing could hardly be worse. San Siro is bracing for another reset. Massimiliano Allegri is on his way out, senior players are under scrutiny, and nothing about Milan feels settled. In that climate, a misfiring centre-forward with a long contract inevitably finds his name dragged into transfer conversations.
Borgetti’s verdict: not just on the striker
In Mexico, one of the country’s most respected voices has watched Gimenez’s Italian struggle with a mixture of concern and understanding.
Jared Borgetti, Mexico’s second-highest all-time goalscorer, believes the story cannot be reduced to one player’s failure.
“Unfortunately, the move to Italy hasn't been a good year for Santiago, but it's not solely due to the player or his problems,” he told GOAL, speaking on behalf of 10bet. “I think his injury has also played a significant role in preventing him from achieving consistency, competing for a starting position, and reaching the level he showed in the Netherlands.
“I believe Milan as a whole hasn't been performing well, and when a team isn't playing well, no player can truly stand out. To say that any player stood out at Milan this season, I think we'd be exaggerating or just saying it for the sake of it, so, I don't think the team helped much either.
“He’s a player who needs the team to be playing well, for the system of play to suit his style, so that he can have scoring opportunities and create plenty of chances for the team to capitalise on. I do think the dip in form is partly due to him, partly due to the team, and obviously, the atmosphere also ends up affecting his individual performances.”
It is a nuanced diagnosis. A striker short of form, yes, but also a team that has lost its identity, a tactical structure that has not played to his strengths, and a club atmosphere that has weighed heavily on individuals rather than lifting them.
A fan in the shirt, not just a player
Through it all, Gimenez has not looked for the exit. He has looked up at the stands.
“I have supported Milan since I was a child, so finding myself playing in that stadium that I could only see on television means a great deal to me,” he told Billboard Italia. “The fans welcomed me with so much affection and, despite the fact I have not yet performed as I would have liked, they continue to push me and trust me. Like a family.”
That detail matters. San Siro is not always kind to struggling forwards. Yet the relationship has not turned toxic. The whistles have been louder for others. The Mexican still feels a cushion of patience beneath him, a sense that the curva wants this story to work as much as he does.
His contract runs until the summer of 2029. Milan, for now, hold a long-term asset. The question is whether the next chapter is written in red and black or somewhere else.
World Cup stage, home soil, bold words
Before that decision crystallises, another stage awaits, one that could reshape everything.
The 2026 World Cup. On Mexican soil. Gimenez, very likely, leading the line for El Tri in a tournament that will open with Mexico against South Africa at the Azteca Stadium on Thursday. The same ground where legends are made, careers are redefined, and narratives are rewritten in a matter of weeks.
“When you wear the national team jersey, you represent an entire country, so you have a huge responsibility, but at the same time, it’s a wonderful thing,” Gimenez said of the tournament. “I know that Mexico, with its people, is very strong at home. I’m convinced it will be a great World Cup. Mexico will win, and I’ll be the top scorer!”
No hedging. No modest targets. World champions, and he finishes as top scorer. It is a prediction that will raise eyebrows in Europe, but in Mexico it will sound like the kind of defiance the home crowd feeds on.
After South Africa, Mexico will face South Korea and Czechia in Group A. On paper, it is a group that offers opportunity. For the national team, a path to the knockout rounds. For Gimenez, a platform to remind the world — and Milan — why he was one of Europe’s most coveted young strikers not so long ago.
If he catches fire in front of his own people, if the goals flow and Mexico ride that wave deep into the tournament, he will not just return to Italy with a medal chase behind him. He will walk back into Milan with a different aura, a striker arriving from a World Cup as a protagonist, not a question mark.
San Siro has seen careers revived by a single summer before. The next few weeks will tell whether Santiago Gimenez comes back to Lombardy as a man fighting for his place, or as the forward who finally found his stage and now demands a team built to match his ambition.
