Wolves striker Raul Jimenez could leave this summer but teams in Major League Soccer may have reservations about signing a high-earning centre-forward without a single Premier League goal all season long.
Former USA international Herculez Gomez, in conversation with ESPN, brings up an interesting point.
Who is the ‘real’ Raul Jimenez? The man who scored goals for fun under Nuno Espirito Santo between 2018 and 2020, forming a formidable partnership with Adama Traore while blossoming into one of the division’s most complete ‘number nines’?
Or the man who found himself on the bench at both Atletico Madrid and Benfica? Was his remarkable spell before that horrific injury two-and-a-half years ago merely a prolonged purple patch, or a man belatedly realising his potential?
Could Raul Jimenez leave Wolves for the MLS?
“Father Time is undefeated with any player,” Gomez says of the now-31-year-old Jimenez, who’s last league goal came 13 months ago.
“Unfortunately, his process was accelerated by that very unfortunate incident with David Luiz; the clash of heads in November 2020. He’s not been the same player since.
“Or maybe I could argue now he is the player he always was. He wasn’t exactly tearing it up (before arriving at Molineux). He only scored at Wolves if you look at his track record.
“At Wolves, for 18 months, he was a different player. He was a player who was scoring goals. Who you could identify as a top-five striker in the Premier League.
“Goal after goal, assist, creating, wrecking havoc. This is a guy who maybe needs to realise that the best years are behind him, and you need to go down a level. The Premier League is too fast for him.”
Jimenez still has over a year remaining on his Wolverhampton Wanderers contract.
Club America president Santiago Banos admitted recently that he would relish the opportunity to bring the Mexico international back home. And Gomez feels that Jimenez is far more likely to end up in Liga MX rather than north of the border.
“I don’t think he has the market in the MLS most people would think he would have,” Gomez adds. “I don’t know who is going to take a chance on him (in the USA).
“He isn’t coming if he isn’t getting that ‘DP’ (Destignated Player) money. And you look at his physical capabilities of late, I don’t think any team is going to go out there and say; ‘Let’s throw a load of money at him and take that chance’.
“I could see plenty of teams taking a chance in Mexico. I could see Club America taking a chance, Cruz Azul, Monterrey or Tigres. He’s only going to be 32 in May. Maybe he recaptures some of that form.”
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