Santiago Gimenez, striker for Milan who arrived from Feyenoord during the month of January with a significant investment, is the cover star of the May 2025 edition of Sports Illustrated Mexico.
To celebrate the partnership with a well-known Mexican phone brand, the Rossoneri’s number 7 hosted journalist Tlatoani Carrera for a day in Milan, between his hotel and Casa Milan, where he was interviewed, touching on themes such as his meticulousness in training, faith, and the beginning of his journey in the Rossoneri shirt.
In his move from the Netherlands to Italy, Gimenez shares that he brought with him the habit of showing up at the training ground before breakfast to train, and over time a true “Breakfast Club” formed with some teammates. He says:
“At Feyenoord, at the beginning, when we created this Breakfast Club, we were two or three players, and in the end, when I left, it was almost the whole team coming to train before breakfast. For now at Milanello, I’m alone, but little by little I’ll bring someone else in.”
It’s not just dedication to work, but also a lot of order... Gimenez said:
"I can’t tell you if I was born this way or if I was raised this way, but I simply like to be organized. I don’t do it for a particular reason. That’s how I function and I understand myself better. When I was about 10 years old, I stuck a card on the wall of my room and I started drawing a line to track my path. Everything evolved when, as a young man, I got my first cell phone. I said: ‘This phone has to help me get closer to where I want to go, not further away.’”
These two traits together mean that El Bebote is very attentive to his performance and to understanding how to improve it. He explained how he uses mobile apps to work on himself:
“Many times, we arrive at training and do everything automatically. And I don’t like that. I like to come to training and be focused and aware of working on what I failed at. I use the notes app a lot for video analysis, for performance. After every match I write down what I did well, what I did poorly, I give myself a rating," as relayed via Milannews.it.
Gimenez continues:
“I have a video analyst. I play and the next day, he starts analyzing, pulls out a video and summarizes the whole match for me in 15 minutes. From that, all my plays come out and he says: ‘Here you did well, but you should have tried to shoot with your right foot.’”
Also with the help of his phone, Gimenez reveals that he keeps track of performance management, preparation, and recovery. And in particular, to best control the first of these three elements, he keeps track of all his goals—but above all, his stats.
“I took a course on reading statistics and I organize them based on results. I can look up how any game went and every three months I create an overall statistic of duels won, duels lost, dribbles, shots. That way I see if the stat is dropping, if it’s increasing, and what’s going down is what I try to improve. When the graph is going down, it’s dangerous. When it’s in danger, I know I have to focus on that. And stay after training to work on shooting.”
Gimenez talks about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of his childhood idols who today helped bring him to Milan and sees him every day. The Rossoneri striker says:
"I really like his personality, the certainty he has when he talks about himself, when he talks about what’s going to happen. He’s not afraid of what others say, he just says what he feels and, more importantly: what he says, he does."
From here, he speaks about his encounter with Faith and with God, a central part of his life and existence:
“I’m very devout. I always try to refer to the Bible. Here I have a cross and on my back I have ‘ignite the spirit.’ This verse talks about that spirit that God gave me, which is not for cowards, right? It’s to be courageous. My first nourishment is spiritual nourishment and it’s the most important. That’s the key to everything. Every morning when I wake up, I kneel on the bed and pray. Sometimes 10 minutes; sometimes two; sometimes 20.”
Gimenez talks about how this relationship began, getting emotional:
“I had never had a relationship with God, I never had a religion, until something happened where they told me there was a chance I wouldn’t play football anymore. I spoke to my father and I said: ‘Why me?’ And he said: ‘I don’t have the answer, but there’s only one who does and that’s God.’ At that point he told me: ‘Have faith.’ So that stuck with me, and that same night I went to take a bath, turned off the lights and sat in the tub, and it was there that I felt the connection with God. It was a difficult moment. I prayed for half an hour. I had my eyes closed and I saw as if a flashlight was shining on me. I opened my eyes because I got scared and there was nothing. And that’s when I understood that He was with me. I believe His message was: ‘I need you here in football.’”
A relationship with God that continues to this day:
“I only ask Him to ignite my spirit. Just let me be that fighter I used to be, let me be that kid who had fun before. Simply, it’s the passion I have for football—let Him awaken it in me, because when you do things with passion, they turn out well," concluded Gimenez.
