“I don’t think that there’s anyone here that doesn’t adore him… he’s a humble guy, he comes from a good family. Everyone loves him.”
It’s not just people in Wolverhampton who love Raul Jimenez. Some 5,000 miles away in Tepeji del Rio — a small, football-mad, former mining town in Mexico — Jimenez is remembered fondly.
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The man talking is Carlos Narvaez, president of the local amateur Tepiji football league, in the state of Hidalgo.
Holy Week in Hidalgo is the time of year where amateur football tournaments take centre stage. Teams battle for big prize money, with the winning sides often earning up to $120,000 Mexican pesos, or roughly €5,500.
Tepeji has never held a tournament during Holy Week, but before the pandemic they were considering organising a knockout version for the first time this year. The proposed name: El Torneo Raul Jimenez.
“We want to honour him,” Narvaez says. “He’s a great role model for our younger players. They look up to Raul and think anything is possible.”
If this article was being written two years ago it would have taken a very different tone.
In spring 2018 a 26-year-old Jimenez, while having realised his dream of playing for Mexico and a big European club, was in danger of being a “nearly man”.
Sure, he had played 33 league games for Benfica in 2017-18, but 27 of those appearances were as a substitute. Sure, he was a regular in the Mexico squad, but Javier Hernandez was very much the country’s No 1 striker.
Fast forward to May 2020 and Jimenez is considered to be one of the best all-round strikers in Europe… an unselfish top-level attacker who acts as the pivot to his team’s play, while also prolific in front of goal. There aren’t too many of those around.
In 44 appearances for Wolves in 2019-20 he has scored 22 times. His 13 Premier League goals have been worth 16 points to Wolves — no other player’s strikes have been as valuable to their team this season. He has directly combined with Adama Traore for eight goals, making them the most prolific partnership in the Premier League.
But the stats don’t tell the other Jimenez story. The one of a humble kid from Tepeji who hasn’t forgotten his roots and doesn’t lead your average football superstar lifestyle. When The Athletic visits Jimenez’s hometown, it’s to hear tales of humility rather than goals. Those who know him well emphasise his humility and his connection to the area.
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When a nine-year-old boy in Tepeji was involved in a serious bicycle accident, Jimenez called the child on FaceTime and wished him a speedy recovery. After Tepeji’s top women’s side won the Hidalgo state championship, Jimenez sent the team a congratulatory video message.
Carlos Vela played alongside Jimenez for Mexico at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Talking to The Athletic, the former Arsenal and West Brom attacker, now with LAFC, outlines his countryman’s determination and mentality.
“He’s very focused on what he wants to be and how to achieve it,” Vela says. “I think that’s what has taken him to where he is today. He has a great mentality. He hasn’t allowed criticism or bad spells to get him down. He knows who he is as a person and as a player and that’s the formula for success.”
Criticism and bad spells came when a 23-year-old Jimenez made his big move to Europe in 2014. The late-blooming star stumbled at times on his way towards the Premier League with Wolves. After winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, an underwhelming stop at Atletico Madrid sounded alarms in Mexico. The unrealistic expectation that he would match La Liga successes of previous Mexican internationals like Hugo Sanchez and Luis Garcia went unfulfilled, despite signing a six-year contract.
In Madrid, Jimenez’s form dipped sharply. He scored one goal in 27 appearances after his reported £11 million move from Club America. “It’s not easy trying to match the likes of Diego Forlan, Diego Costa and Radamel Falcao,” Jimenez told Spanish outlet AS in 2014.
Just a year later he moved to Benfica, a much more fruitful alliance. After being handed the No 9 shirt, in his first season he played 45 times and scored 12 goals including one in a narrow Champions League quarter-final defeat by Bayern Munich.
Benfica purchased the remaining 50 per cent of his rights from Atletico, with a €22 million move making him, at the time, the most expensive Mexican player in history. In three seasons he would play 80 times in the league, but only 20 of those were starts. He still contributed with 18 goals and 11 assists but was forever playing second fiddle to prolific Brazilian striker Jonas.
The relatively small city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands would not have been the obvious choice of destination to propel Jimenez’s career into the stratosphere — the city’s club hadn’t played in the Premier League for six years, or European competition (excluding the Anglo-Italian Cup) for 37 — but manager Nuno Espirito Santo identified the striker as someone who could be a key component in his newly-promoted team.
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Jimenez, it is often forgotten, actually started slowly in English football, netting only twice in his first 10 games. His work rate, metronomic link play and classy touches in and around the final third — like teeing up goals for Joao Moutinho at Old Trafford or Matt Doherty at Selhurst Park — were vital in those opening weeks, but most fans assumed that a more prolific striker would arrive in January.
Jimenez seemed to lack a killer instinct in front of goal. When he beat the offside trap and raced through with Wolves 1-0 down at home to Huddersfield, he chose to cut inside and square the ball instead of shooting. There was no one there and it rolled embarrassingly across the box, to howls of frustration from the stands.
Two weeks later a switch in formation transformed Jimenez’s fortunes. Wolves ditched their tried and trusted 3-4-3 system, utilising a 3-5-2 against Chelsea in early December 2018. Jimenez scored in a 2-1 win and struck up a telepathic understanding with Diogo Jota.
In the 30 games from Chelsea onwards Jimenez scored 14 times. He continued that form into the Gold Cup with Mexico last summer, where he scored five and was named player of the tournament — and this season has seen more of the same.
His success as a Mexican striker in England is not unprecedented. Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez scored 53 goals in 158 Premier League appearances for Manchester United and West Ham between 2010 and 2019. Jimenez has played under the shadow of Hernandez at the international level and now again in England but, even before Hernandez’s recent move to Major League Soccer, Jimenez had become Mexico’s top striker and their most valuable export.
Asked if he was surprised about the way Jimenez has been able to establish himself in the Premier League, Vela was self-critical before commending Jimenez.
“He deserves a lot of credit,” Vela says. “I was there for three seasons and could never truly enjoy it. My characteristics didn’t allow me to get comfortable in that league. That’s why I give him so much credit. It’s a very physical league. Matches are tight and for him to play the way he has says a lot about his quality. As a Mexican, I’m really proud, and I’m glad I was able to play alongside him.”
The people of Mexico are proud of him too — particularly in Tepeji.
To understand the relationship that Jimenez maintains with Tepeji, one must first appreciate the city’s footballing history, its origins and the Jimenez family’s ties to Liga de Futbol Independiente Tepeji, the city’s amateur league.
From inside the league’s outdated headquarters in Tepeji’s bustling city centre, Carlos Narvaez proudly recounts the highlights of the town’s 100-year love affair with football — as well as the impact Jimenez’s Premier League rise has had on the region’s next generation of footballers.
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The league’s office was built in 1983. It’s a modest two-storey structure with obvious signs of wear and tear, despite being recently renovated. From the street, you can see a large porcelain statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe enclosed in a glass case. Passers-by make the sign of the cross throughout the day.
The walls of the office are adorned with pictures of successful amateur sides dating back to the mid-1940s. Narvaez plans to convert the first floor of the building into a museum celebrating Tepeji’s standout footballers and the league’s trajectory.
According to Narvaez, engineers from England travelled to Hidalgo a century ago to work in the local mines in Real del Monte and Pachuca, just outside of Tepeji. The first football match that was played in the town took place between a team of local textile workers and an XI made up of English miners. The factory that employed the textile workers, Toallas la Josefina, remains in business today and is a beacon of Tepeji’s local economy. The company is also an active sponsor of Tepeji’s football leagues, which began play under its current format in 1970.
“Our football is very strong,” says Narvaez. “The league features 90 teams that play across five different divisions and we continue to expand. We currently have 2,300 players and 400 are under the age of 18. Football in Tepeji is what drives and inspires so many people here in town. People cannot wait for Sunday to arrive.”
The top division is called “La Primera Especial”. Narvaez says these matches feature a fast, technical brand of football that occasionally attracts crowds of around 3,000 people on a Sunday afternoon. There’s a large group of Tepeji footballers that travel throughout the state playing in different leagues as high-priced mercenaries. Players flow in from Mexico City and other surrounding conurbations.
“(Players) want to play in Tepeji because the league offers an attractive brand of football,” Narvaez says. “I feel like the players that come from Tepeji have the characteristics of a professional footballer. They’re technical, fast and quick-minded. There isn’t a lot of space given when you play in Tepeji. Former professionals that come and play need a bit of time to adjust. The pace of play is very high. You don’t have time on the ball. You don’t have time to think. So when players from Tepeji move on, they immediately impress.”
Jimenez never played in Tepeji’s youth divisions, but his father, Raul Jimenez Sr, did in the 1980s and was well-known as a tough-tackling central midfielder and an aggressive striker. Several of Jimenez’s uncles played in Tepeji’s top division as well. But Jimenez Sr, who now represents his son as his agent, took him to an academy affiliated with Liga MX side Cruz Azul, just down the road from the family’s home. After Raul’s father was relocated to Mexico City for work purposes, he placed his son in Club America’s youth set up.
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However, it was in Tepeji that the younger Jimenez fell in love with football. It was in Tepeji where Jimenez discovered his knack for scoring goals. And it was in Tepeji where one over-enthusiastic goal celebration would mark him for life.
His first-cousin, Luis Manuel Flores, provides a glimpse into the childhood of Wolves’ star striker.
“I was at the hospital in Tepeji when Raul was born,” Flores says. “He lived there for the first six years of his life. We’ve always supported him — in good times and bad, throughout his entire career.”
Like most children who begin to play football, Jimenez enjoyed shooting on goal. Jimenez would want to play for hours, Flores remembers, and he refused to play as a goalkeeper.
“Ever since he was a kid he had that talent (to score goals),” says Flores. “He has loved the game from a young age. He always had a ball with him and football always piqued his interest, mainly because of his father. In his day, his dad was a good player.”
Jimenez and his cousins would play football on a small grassy field in the city’s centre. The field is now home to Tepeji’s main bus station, but 22 years ago it was the scene of an important moment in Jimenez’s young life. After becoming accustomed to playing without goalposts, they arrived at the park one day and saw that someone had created a goal using three cement posts.
“Raul scored a goal and hung on the crossbar to celebrate,” Flores recalls. “The whole thing came down on him. The cement post fell on his head. He was bleeding and everyone was freaking out. My uncle had a shocked look on his face. If you’ve ever noticed, Raul has a scar on the right side of his forehead. Anytime that there’s a close-up of Raul on television we see that scar and remember that day.”
Today the Wolves striker keeps tabs on a newly-formed first division side called Los Lobos.
“They play in a full Wolverhampton kit,” Narvaez says. “Some of Raul’s cousins play on that team. Raul sends them motivational voice messages and videos on match days. I’m assuming he sent them the uniforms.”
Jimenez’s ability to drop into midfield and link between the lines has made him invaluable to Nuno’s system at Wolves. The Mexico international is a playmaking centre-forward who can initiate attacks and finish them clinically. Those same characteristics have made him the ideal No 9 for Mexico manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino.
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The former Barcelona, Argentina and Atlanta United boss told reporters last summer that Jimenez was the best Mexican striker in the world. This came at a time when the Mexican press was critical of Jimenez after he had scored one goal in three friendlies against South American opposition. Martino defended Jimenez then and continues to value the intangibles that the 29-year-old brings to the table.
“In my career, I’ve always worked with central strikers that were technical players,” Martino tells The Athletic. “I’ve never had a No 9 who just finishes plays. From Nacho Scocco at Newell’s (Old Boys); Josef (Martinez) in Atlanta and now Raul… and obviously the calibre of player I had with Argentina and Barcelona.
“I don’t think a No 9 is there to simply score goals. In our system, we want a No 9 that can drop back and play as a No 10. Raul is capable of that, and so we’re able to take advantage of his skills.”
In Jimenez, Martino has a central striker who is clearly in his prime and loving his football again.
“When your No 9 is in top form and playing with confidence, you can see it in the way they walk; in the way they run. He’s doing really well. He was doing well last season at this time of year. It’s evident that his confidence is a byproduct of his team’s style of play and the way that his manager supports him. He has a good understanding with the other attackers that play with him; Adama (Traore) and the young Portuguese player (Diogo Jota) on the left.”
Speak to staff at Wolves and they will eulogise about a genuinely nice guy who is a pleasure to work with. There’s no secret to his success — talent, quality and hard work is what’s lifted him to greater heights at Molineux. It’s felt the biggest difference between Jimenez now and Jimenez two or three years ago is the fact he’s starting regularly, week after week.
Wolves have given him an environment to improve himself in a team which already had an identity and a philosophy. He was the final piece of the puzzle.
Jimenez hasn’t missed a single Premier League game since moving to Molineux, first on loan and then for a club-record £32m, starting 64 times and coming off the bench in the other three.
But it’s not just on the field that he’s indispensable. Thanks to Jimenez, Wolves have seen a 12,500 per cent growth in their Mexican following in the past 18 months. They now have five times as many social media followers in Mexico than they do in the UK, their third kit is “Mexico green”, they’ve started a campaign to save the endangered Mexican wolf, they hosted Mexican-American pro wrestler Sin Cara at a Wolves game and this summer they had hoped, before the coronavirus crisis, to travel to Texas to play Jimenez’s old team Club America for a pre-season friendly.
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It’s been a productive and lucrative partnership for both parties, one that Wolves hope doesn’t end anytime soon. However, despite the likely prospect of some of Europe’s biggest clubs keeping a close eye on Jimenez, there are few signs that he’s angling to leave Molineux.
On the contrary, of Wolves’ many overseas recruits it’s Jimenez who is said to have embraced life in Wolverhampton and England more than any other.
When he was given a week off last October after practically playing non-stop for the whole calendar year (and being granted a week off is very rare under Nuno), Jimenez could have followed the stereotypical footballer’s path of jetting off to Dubai. Instead he went to Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral.
He may have more than three million Twitter followers, his face may appear in Hello! Magazine in the UK or on huge billboards for Bridgestone tyres or Monster energy drinks back home (Jimenez has more third-party deals than any other player in the Wolves squad) but he is a reluctant, down-to-earth star, one who sources suggest is unlikely to pursue a post-playing career in management or the media.
Jimenez appreciates being fairly anonymous in his corner of Wolverhampton, not far from the club’s training ground. He’ll be recognised when he pops to the shops, or walks his beloved dogs with his partner Daniela, or takes a trip to Harry Potter World (one of their dogs is called Dobby), but not mobbed like he would be back home.
He’s settled in Wolverhampton and generally keeps himself to himself, mixing with Spanish-speaking team-mates such as his best friend at the club Jonny Castro Otto. Football and family dominate his life and Wolves remains central to that. He is an unflappable and unpretentious megastar.
Yet even all that cannot hush the rumours. Flores confirmed reports that Real Madrid scouts had been keeping an eye on Jimenez before COVID-19 brought football to a sudden halt.
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While Jimenez has also been linked to Arsenal and Manchester United, a move to the Santiago Bernabeu would be the striker’s dream. Flores says that his cousin grew up wanting to don Real Madrid’s famous all-white kit, which likely resulted in what at the time was an innocuous tweet sent at half-time of a 2013 Copa del Rey clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
With Real Madrid leading 2-0, Jimenez proclaimed: “This is great. Madrid are up 2-0. Nothing is decided yet, but it’s a solid advantage. #halamadrid”.
“When he got to Atletico Madrid, a lot of Atleti fans brought that up — that Raúl was a Madrid supporter,” Flores says. “He didn’t fit with Simeone’s plans or with the fans. I think all of that had a big effect on him. He’s always been a Madridista. Raul’s dream is to play for Real Madrid and win with them.”
Jimenez addressed the speculation about his future during an interview with ESPN earlier this month. He joked that social media guesswork had him wearing Chelsea, Arsenal, or Manchester United colours next season. When asked about interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona, Jiménez left his childhood loyalties aside.
“If you tell me that tomorrow an offer from Real Madrid or Barcelona comes, it is obvious that you do not let such an opportunity go,” Jiménez said.
Back in Tepeji, it’s nearing the end of the work day and Narvaez stops by a local print production shop in the town’s centre. He thanks the owner, coincidentally named Hugo Sanchez, for supporting his league and football in Tepeji. Sanchez is in his mid-thirties. He’s jovial with a punk-rock vibe about him. The two chat about whether a bigger English club will swoop for Jimenez next season, with Narvaez suggesting Liverpool.
The conversation quickly shifts to whether or not Jimenez will surpass Javier Hernandez’s impressive Premier League career. For Narvaez and Sanchez, the numbers are irrelevant. Jimenez is from Tepeji and that’s all that matters.
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“In Tepeji we didn’t feel close to Hernandez,” Narvaez says. “We thought about a number of things. That he succeeded because his dad was a former (professional) player. That he got to Europe because he had the economic means to do so. Or because he had a good agent. That football benefits the rich, not the poor, or that it only benefits one specific class of people.”
“Jimenez is from these streets,” Sanchez interjected with a sharp grin on his face.
Narvaez continues: “We’re very proud to be from Tepeji. Wouldn’t change anything about it. We’ll take a bullet for Tepeji. And we love our football. But the fact that Raul came from here, and having met his family, well that’s (a young player’s) motivation. They believe that they can make it too. The goal is to change the name of the league to “Liga de Fútbol Independiente de Tepeji – Raul Jimenez.”
“A well-known football commentator named Enrique Bermudez always refers to Jimenez as a native son of Tepeji del Rio. ‘And the bells toll loudly for the Wolf of Tepeji!’ That’s his goal call.”
The Wolf of Tepeji… it’s got a nice ring to it. As the song goes, “give the ball to Raul and he will score”.
(Top Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)