Santiago Gimenez started this season excellently and literally helped Feyenoord gain points in the competition, but since the second half of the season things have slowed down a lot. The connection was quickly made with possible fatigue after he had not actually had a period of rest in the summer. The Mexican now talks in the Kick ‘t Met program about the consequences of his busy playing schedule.
“My vacation was during the winter break and that was all I had,” Gimenez begins his story. “This summer it will be the same because we have the Copa America. I’m leaving for Mexico and then I have a week before we’re back with the national team. It’s part of the game and I decided myself to live this life. So I’m very grateful.”
The Mexican is now looking forward to the moment when he can have another week off and sometimes thinks back to last season when the championship was won. “Then I make it a big holiday and that’s the time I have to go places and be with my family. I’m the kind of player who doesn’t want to lose a match. I still remember last season and Arne told me two weeks before the end of the season that I could go on holiday now because otherwise I wouldn’t have a holiday. I said I wanted to play. I feel really tired, but I love playing.”
Alireza Jahanbakhsh is also a guest and understands his teammate’s feeling and experienced it in the past, but knows from experience that later in your career you can also get it under better control. “That also comes over the years, going from season to season. Because when you’re younger, the energy you have, the joy of the game and everything makes you want to play as much as possible.”
Feyenoord’s right winger also looks critically at the busy playing schedule. “At one point there was a FIFA day every month. He had to fly somewhere every month. We had players everywhere and that’s very difficult. But I think managing time and managing playing time is very important Because as a player you want to play everything, but then your performance is not always what you want.”
