The wolf has already matured. It is already 10 years since the Lobo from Tepeji del Río, Raúl Alonso Jiménez, gave his first howl in professional football, since just on October 9, but in 2011, he debuted in MX League as a player of the America. Curiously, his opportunity was given thanks to a European attack model.
Day 12 of the Opening 2011 saw the birth of the Mexican attacker’s career, thanks to the trust of Alfredo Tena, who had had him in the Basic Forces of the America three years ago from its debut. The Captain Fury He sent him to the court before him Morelia, although to embed it in the American team he had to think of a European-style strategy to be able to play with 2 nines.
“I had already had Raúl in Basic Forces for 3 years, I already saw him fully mature, I was eager, you could already see the greed to enter the First Division, he was physically well. When I took the team, the first thing I did was take it to the bench and as soon as I had the first opportunity I put him to play ”, he assured Again in an interview with Mediotiempo.
“He was a boy who had already completed all the processes, the only problem is that Chucho Benítez was there and (the question was) how to accommodate the two, because I wasn’t going to get Benítez out, (but) I had to make sure that Raúl could play. It was my biggest job to find a position for both of them so that the team had more weight in the area, so we put it against Morelia and then he was the undisputed starter and from there we didn’t get it anymore.
Therefore, he saw in Europe how teams used two nines in attack, and the clear example was what the Bayern Munich with Robert Lewandowski and Mario Mandzukic.
“I took as an example some international teams that played with two ‘nines’, for example, Lewandoski and Mandzukic, two reference nines. Playing as a second nine, entering from the left, it seemed to me that it was going to give a good result, and attacking the space of the central midfielders also Raúl knows how to play; Not only is he a scorer, he knows how to assist as he has shown at Wolverhampton ”, he added.
“I told him: ‘you’re here to play’, ‘yes, teacher’, he said; You could see his greed, the desire to enter, he was not scared at all, he already had many international games on tours in Basic forces, Minor Teams, he was ready, the joke was to push them to the court and he did not get nervous. He was happy, he told me ‘this is mine’ “, recalled the Captain Fury.
A plus for Jiménez was that he fell well against the forwards that America had with Vicente Sanchez, Christian benitez, and other elements of experience such as Jesus Molina.
“The Chucho Benitez, did not feel that they were attacking his space, he took it very well, there was the Rolfi Montenegro, Jesus MolinaI remember that they supported him a lot, they made him feel like he was not an intruder, and everything worked well, apart from that he started scoring goals ”, he mentioned.
The first goal of Raúl with America in the First Division it was on October 30 of the same 2011, he did it before Puebla and from there no one stopped him.
In 2014 he jumped to Europe to play with him Atlético de Madrid where it was not what was expected, then he went to Benfica from Portugal and by 2018 it reached Wolverhampton, where he became a figure.
He was uncoordinated due to his growth in the quarry of America
Not everything was happiness for Raúl Jiménez, who in his stage as a striker in the U-17 of the Águilas suffered lack of coordination due to his growth, so he had two or three bad months on the field.
“Ever, When he was 16 years old, he began to grow disproportionately, He was not very tall and suddenly his growth tendons began to hurt, he lost coordination, he grew a lot, his foot was very big and he looked a bit uncoordinated, he had 2 or 3 bad months when he was in the Sub 17 ”, mentioned Tena.
Too He remembered the work that it cost him to convince his brother Luis Fernando to take it to the Olympic process heading to London 2012.
“He later went to the Olympic Selection, I had to bother Luis Fernando a lot to go see him, to take him away, until one day I convinced him, He went to Coapa to see him play and he liked it a lot, he even scored a Chilean goal that day he went to see him ”, he said.
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