Milan spent big this summer to fix a problem that has followed the club for two seasons: nobody up front could be trusted to score consistently. Now there are two number nines fighting for one shirt, and the answer to who starts is messier than the transfer fee suggests.
The Numbers Milan Can't Ignore
Gimenez arrived in February 2025 from Feyenoord for a fee north of 30 million euros. Since then he has managed 7 goals in 37 appearances across all competitions for Milan, a return that looks thin next to the 65 goals he scored in just over two seasons in Rotterdam. Something changed the moment he crossed into Serie A. Bookmakers have already priced the rivalry for next season, and on Jeetbuzz Ramos opened as the narrow favorite to hit double figures in the league before Gimenez does, a gap that says more about reputation and fee than about anything either man has actually done in Milan colors yet. Ramos, for his part, arrives with a resume built somewhere else entirely. Forty five goals in 131 appearances for PSG, two Champions League titles, and a club record transfer fee north of 70 million euros. He was rarely PSG's starting striker. He still kept scoring anyway.
Two Very Different Kinds of Number Nine
Here is the part nobody puts in the headline. These are not two versions of the same player competing for the same job. Gimenez is a penalty box predator who wants service delivered early and often, someone who has converted 10 of 15 career penalties and does most of his damage from inside the six yard box. Ramos does something else. He finishes chances other strikers would not even attempt, often arriving late into the box rather than living there.
A few things separate them on paper
- Gimenez has played almost exclusively as an out and out striker since his teens, while Ramos spent three years at PSG rotating in and out of Luis Enrique's fluid front line.
- Ramos has a Champions League final goal on his record. Gimenez does not, not yet.
- Gimenez costs Milan roughly half of what Ramos did, which matters to a club that just broke its own transfer record.
None of that settles anything by itself. It just means Amorim has two strikers who may solve different problems, not one striker and his backup.
What Amorim Actually Needs
Ruben Amorim built his reputation at Sporting on a front three that presses in coordinated waves and a lone striker who can hold the ball under pressure. That is not obviously Gimenez's game, and it is only sometimes Ramos's. The Portuguese coach inherits a Milan side that finished fifth last season with Rafael Leao as top scorer on 9 league goals, which is not a number any club with Milan's ambitions wants to see next to a forward's name at the end of the campaign.
What Amorim is actually choosing between:
- A younger, cheaper striker who has shown he can finish in a different league but has gone cold in Italy.
- A club record signing who spent three years accepting a reduced role at the best team in France and never complained about it.
- Some rotation between the two depending on opponent, which is the answer nobody wants to hear but the one most coaches actually pick.
So Which One Actually Fixes Milan
Put the fee to one side for a second. Ramos looks like the better bet against deep defensive blocks, the kind Milan will see constantly in Serie A. Gimenez, if he eventually stays at Milan and becomes physically fit, could be sharper in transition, when there is space to run into rather than a wall to break down. Neither profile is complete on its own.
Ask yourself which games Milan actually lost last season. Mostly the ones where they had the ball and nothing to do with it. That points toward Ramos, at least on paper. Hard to argue otherwise, though Gimenez has one full Serie A season of learning behind him now that Ramos does not.
The honest answer is that Milan did not solve their goal-scoring problem this summer. They just bought themselves a more expensive version of the argument.
