Gimenez discusses importance of faith, ‘Breakfast Club’ and working with Ibrahimovic | OneFootball

Santiago Gimenez has revealed why faith is so important to him, and also shed light on what Zlatan Ibrahimovic is like.

Gimenez joined Milan in the winter transfer window from Feyenoord, and after making a very positive start he then endured some struggles. The Mexico international went two months without scoring, which saw him relegated to third in the striker pecking order.

However, the turning point hopefully came on Sunday in the win over Venezia. The 24-year-old latched onto a ball over the top from Tijjani Reijnders and lobbed the goalkeeper to make it 2-0 in the closing seconds.

Sergio Conceicao hopes that’s the start of a resurgence that will make his selection decisions very difficult in the final part of the campaign, especially with the Coppa Italia final coming in less than two weeks.

Gimenez is the cover star of the May 2025 edition of Sports Illustrated Mexico, and he hosted journalist Tlatoani Carrera for a day in Milano, shedding light on what his start to life in Italy has been like. MilanNews relayed his comments.

Can you tell us about your ‘Breakfast Club’?

“At Feyenoord, at the beginning, when we created this Breakfast Club, there were two or three of us and, in the end, when I left, almost the whole team came to train before breakfast. For now at Milanello I’m alone, but little by little I’ll attract someone else.”

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Is this dedication in your nature?

“I can’t tell you if I was born this way or if I was raised this way, but I simply like to be tidy. I don’t do it for any particular reason. It’s how I function and how I understand myself best.

“When I was about 10 years old, I stuck a piece of cardboard on the wall of my room and started to draw a line to follow my path. Everything evolved when I received my first mobile phone as a young man, I said: ‘This phone must help me get closer to where I want to go, not further away’.”

Do you use apps to work on yourself?

“A lot of times, we get to training and we do everything automatically. And I don’t like that. I like to get to training and be focused and aware of working on what I’ve failed at.

“I use the notes app a lot for video analysis, for performance. After each game I write down what I did well, what I did badly, I give myself a grade. I have a video analyst. I play and the next day, he starts analysing, takes a video and summarises the whole game for me in 15 minutes.

“From there, all my plays come out and he says: ‘You did well in this one, but you should have tried to shoot with your right foot’.”

How do you interpret the data?

“I took a course in reading statistics and I organise them based on the results. I can consult how any match went and every three months I make a general statistic of duels won, duels lost, dribbling, shots.

“So I see if the statistic is decreasing, if the statistic is increasing, and what is decreasing is what I try to improve. When the graph is decreasing, it is dangerous. When it is in danger, I know that I have to concentrate on that. And stay after training to work on shots on goal.”

Photo by AC Milan

What is it like working under the eyes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic?

“I really like his personality, the certainty he has when he talks about himself, when he talks about what will happen. He is not afraid of what others say, he only says what he feels and, most importantly: what he says, he does.”

How important is faith to you?

“I am a very religious person. I always try to refer to the Bible. Here I have a cross and on my back I have ‘light up the spirit’. This verse speaks, precisely, of that spirit that God has given me, which is not for cowards, right? It is to be brave.

“My first nourishment is spiritual nourishment and the most important. This is the key to everything. Every morning when I wake up, I kneel on the bed and pray. Sometimes 10 minutes; sometimes two; sometimes 20.

“I have never had a relationship with God, I have never had a religion, until something happened that made me tell myself that there was a possibility that I would never play football again. I spoke to my father and said: ‘Why me?’ And he told me: ‘I don’t have the answer, but there is only one who does and that is God.’

“At that point he told me: ‘Have faith’. So this stayed with me and that same night I went to take a bath, I turned off the lights and sat in the tub and that’s when I felt the connection with God. It was a difficult moment. I prayed for half an hour.

“I had my eyes closed and I see as if a torch was shining on me. I open my eyes because I got scared and there was nothing. And that’s when I understood that He was with me. I think his message was: ‘I need you here in football’.

“I only ask Him to light up my spirit. It’s just that He lets me be the fighter that I was, that He lets me be that child who had fun before. Simply, it’s the passion that I have for football, that He reawakens it in me, because when you do things with passion, they turn out well.”