The father of Santiago Gimenez – Christian – has revealed that his son idolised several AC Milan icons and believes Sergio Conceicao is the right coach for him.
Gimenez arrived towards the end of the winter transfer window, signing a deal that will run until 2029, and he made his debut for the club during the 3-1 Coppa Italia win over Roma, setting up Joao Felix – a fellow January arrival – for the third goal.
Then, he made his Serie A debut in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Empoli and got his first goal since joining. After collecting a pass from Christian Pulisic, the Mexican cut inside on his left foot and curled a brilliant shot past Milan loanee Devis Vasquez.
It was certainly the ideal start for the 23-year-old, who tonight must return to face Feyenoord, the club that he scored over 60 goals for after joining from Cruz Azul two and a half years ago.
Christian Gimenez gave an interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport this morning about his son’s move to Milan and the pride that he feels, with his comments relayed by MilanPress.
You must feel pride as a parent…
“Santiago is incredible, he makes us very happy, we experience great emotions. We believe he can achieve the goals he has set for himself as a footballer.
“He brings dedication, passion for what he does, he is a professional in every sense of the word. Today at Milan he is very happy with the group and the technical staff, with the club which is an incredible club.”
Is it true Santi pushed to join Milan?
“Yes, while they closed the deal, Santi continued to play and his focus was only on that. Football and Milan entered our house very early: Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, Kakà and Inzaghi were his idols when he was little.
“Just as he already loved the Rossoneri fans and the spectacle of the stadium. Finding ourselves at San Siro, meeting people of the calibre of Baresi, Dida, Shevchenko in the stands, and then his teammates: everything impressed us.”
Is Conceicao a good coach for him?
“The coach has a lot of experience and is demanding in everything: this will help my son grow. Just as Milan’s formation and style of play can develop him. The advice I give him is to always play with the determination he has: he will have teammates of great quality, an advantage for everyone.”
Where did the nickname come from?
“A team-mate came to our house and called him ‘Bebote’ because Santi was very tall when he was little and in the eyes of his young friend he was just a ‘big boy’.”
He needs to relay that message to Pulisic and Theo, Conceicao has the ability to improve them if they listen
You are assuming the rumors of Pulisic being unhappy were true. I highly doubt they are but we’ll see in the summer if he hands over his transfer request (which I’m willing to bet my house against).
I would bet he was actually unhappy because of his injury this season and not being able to contribute as much as he could. This sounds like some stupid made up article.
Has Pulisic ever shown himself to be anything other than 100% professional to you? He has had many coaches Klinsman, Klopp, Tuchel, Potter, Lampard, Pioli, Pochetino, Fonseca… you really think he doesn’t listen to his coaches? GTFOH
I agree and to my knowledge he hasn’t ever given any indications of being anything but a 100% professional throughout his career.
On a side note and as much as I didn’t like him playing for Inter I really adored Klinsmann the player.
When Klinsmann played for Inter I HATED him. Because of the Inter-trio (Brehme, Klinss & Matthäus) I also hated Germany. I really did. But for some strange reason when Klinsmann left Inter I started realizing how awesome he really was. Such a class act. Such an amazing striker capable of scoring beautiful goals. His sprint in Spurs was great.
Well all 3 players was great ones but obviously when we meet Inter I pretty much hate them all but I can at least still admire their players qualities when we doesn’t meet. Sure I also get that about Germany as I’m a Dane but it was also a different time back then considering the history of the country. Yeah that Tottenham team was really an interesting one even if they wasn’t as successful as professed to become.
I was nevertheless more than happy about our own trio but over the years I was also rather angry that they got Bergkamp and Ronaldo and I’m sure Ive been cursing all the before mentioned players in matches against us as well 😀
Yes but not only that. He was mostly warming the bench before Milan, so if he was going to get mad I think it would be sometimes at that point. Not when being really valued at the club he is…