Arne Slot does not yet dare to say with full certainty that Santiago Giménez can also be admired in De Kuip next season. The Feyenoord trainer, who won the Rinus Michels Award on Monday, heard the agent of the Mexican tastemaker say ‘many sensible things’ in the media in recent weeks. “For example, that it is good for him to stay another year,” Slot said in conversation with ESPN.
The great interest in the Feyenoord players after the championship year is no surprise to Slot. “I think every coach anywhere in the world knows that players who are doing very well are in the interest of clubs. We have done very well and Santiago has done very well as an individual. Then he will be in the spotlight,” says Slot. “I have already heard his agent say a lot of sensible things, for example that it is good for him to stay another year.”
However, that offers no guarantees, the trainer believes. “Now in recent weeks and months I have also seen people who said they were staying, but then left. That cannot be ruled out in football.” The ESPN reporter indicates that Fer Serrano, Giménez’s immensely popular girlfriend, is having a great time in Rotterdam. “That is one, but Santiago is also having a great time himself,” Slot responds. “He had a great first season. He’s had a hard time too, hasn’t he? In the beginning he did score, but he didn’t always play. Then he had a trainer (Slot himself, ed.) who also thought he should do a little more if we didn’t have the ball. He has been handling that better and better.”
“The most important thing is that Gimenez has continued to score his goals. Then at some point you get the chance. He grabbed it and was super important for the title we took”, continues Slot, who takes the opportunity to compliment his team. “It is also the case that Danilo made eight before the winter break and last season ten in total. Last season’s strikers, Bryan Linssen and Cyriel Dessers, also scored the necessary goals. So it cannot be ruled out that it also partly has to do with the team and that our striker can score goals.”
Gimenez’s agent
Matias Bunge, a Mexican agent who acts as an intermediary for Giménez and his family, revealed last weekend that “the plan” is for his client to stay in the Netherlands for at least one more year. The agent also made it known that twenty million euros ‘is not an amount for which Giménez can go’. “Santiago is in the crosshairs of many clubs, not just Lazio,” said Bunge. In addition to Lazio, the striker is also followed by Atlético Madrid and Juventus. A transfer fee of twenty million euros is not negotiable for Bunge. “He cannot leave Feyenoord for that amount. The idea is also that he will stay in the Netherlands for at least one more season.”