Milan, hear from Santi Gimenez’s father: “For me, Porto are a good step forward”

Christian 'Chaco' Gimenez on his son Santiago's loan move to Porto: "This deal dragged on for quite a while and fortunately, it ended well. It took longer than expected. We had already been talking to Porto for 20 days, and they were one of the first clubs to come forward. Then there were some decisions by AC Milan regarding Santi, according to which if he had not found a solution he would have gone six months without playing, and that was making him increasingly desperate and as the time left in the transfer window kept running down, the situation became more complicated."

Gimenez's father continued on the reasons that led them to choose Porto: "Santi is a very thoughtful boy. We look not only at the names of the teams but also at the coach, how they play, what attacking variations they have, what he can create, whether they play in the Champions League and how they play. So many factors influence the decision to move to another team and, in reality, we took things as they came. We thought Milan would be a great opportunity because, besides the fact that Santi grew up watching Milan, when Milan arrived, he forgot about the other teams and we set off for Milan. The truth is that for me Porto are a good step forward because they are a team who will compete in their domestic league, who will fight for the title, who will play in the Champions League and, to tell the truth, have a really excellent squad"

Then on Santiago's final months at Milan: "When he played, he played nine matches, but in those nine matches he kept playing despite the injury and did not want to stop because he was a starter. Santi does not take any medication, he was even taking Dosul (an antidepressant, ed.) just to play, because they had no other options and because the other strikers were injured. There are things that perhaps the world does not know, but I do. As for his performances, he may not have done well or been productive: in the first nine matches he played before the injury, he was actually a starter. When he returned from injury, the team suffered a huge collapse, going from first place to fifth. It is part of the growth process, it is not the end of the world. He is 25 years old, has scored 99 goals in his career and in 12 Champions League matches has registered eight goals and two assists."