Giacomo Iacobellis: “Giménez can kick-start his career at FC Porto” | OneFootball

After André Silva, Inbeom Hwang, João Afonso, Mame Niang and Eirik Granaas, FC Porto are now focusing their summer transfer market efforts on Santiago Giménez. The Mexican striker is Francesco Farioli's main target to solve the problems that have been affecting the attack.

The absence of Samu Aghehowa, who is still recovering from a complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and is only expected to be available in mid-November, put André Silva at the center of the Dragons’ frontline. However, a sprain to his right ankle ruled him out in the very first round of the Primeira Liga.

Deniz Gul is therefore the only available alternative for the center-forward position, a solution considered insufficient by the blue-and-white hierarchy. It is in this context that the interest in Santiago Giménez emerges, with AC Milan reportedly already willing to loan him out for the 2026/27 season.

Given this scenario, Desporto ao Minuto tried to find out the reasons why the 25-year-old striker, previously linked with Benfica, is no longer part of Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim’s plans. To do so, it spoke with Italian journalist Giacomo Iacobellis.

“I think there were several contributing factors. Injuries clearly affected his continuity, but he also failed to deliver the performances AC Milan expected after the investment they made,” he began by saying, referring to the roughly 30 million euros paid to Feyenoord in January of last year, 2025.

“He was never able to find real consistency or establish himself as an attacking reference point, and little by little he lost ground in the team hierarchy. On top of that, AC Milan’s crisis lowered the level of all the players,” added the reporter from the Italian outlet Tuttomercatoweb.

“Santiago Giménez could once again become an interesting player for Amorim as well”

Giacomo Iacobellis describes Santiago Giménez as “a penalty-box striker” who “thrives above all in the final 20 to 25 meters and whose goalscoring instinct is one of his main virtues.” The journalist also highlights that the Mexican “makes good runs in behind, knows how to move behind defenders and has good movement inside the box,” traits appreciated by Francesco Farioli.

On the other hand, “his impact is smaller when he has to be heavily involved in build-up play or play with his back to goal.” Even so, he believes a possible move on loan to FC Porto “could above all be an opportunity to relaunch him”… not least because Ruben Amorim still believes in the striker.

“Giménez is still only 25, and we cannot forget the level he showed at Feyenoord. If he can recover his goals, consistency and confidence, he could once again become an interesting player for Amorim as well. Much will depend, of course, on how the deal is done and on the loan conditions,” he stressed.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.