Raul Jimenez interview: From Benfica’s bench to Premier League superstar

Raul Jimenez is having the time of his life.

He has just found out that his girlfriend Daniela is expecting their first child, a son. He discovered that last detail on the Molineux pitch when the club set up a gender reveal game for his family and friends. Jimenez took a football onto the turf and was encouraged to aim for a small target in the corner of the net. There were blue puffs of smoke when he hit it.

"We enjoyed it very much," Jimenez tells Sky Sports. "My dad and my sister were there too. It was very special for us."

The baby is due in July and the plan is for him to be born in Wolverhampton during pre-season. A future England striker? "I prefer him to play for Mexico," he says, "but why not?"

If life is good off the pitch, it is going just as well on it. Jimenez's 22 goals for Wolves this season have underscored the reputation he developed for himself during his opening season with the club. He is now one of the top strikers in the Premier League.

"I am enjoying what I am doing," he adds. "On and off the pitch, I feel great. It is a very good time for me, for my life and for my team. Here I am, making my dreams come true."

Jimenez is a complete striker. It is not just about the goals. He has six assists in the Premier League this season. He is a player who creates chances for others. He holds the ball up well with his back to goal and he can dribble forwards when he is facing it. Sometimes he does all that in one move, as was the case for his equaliser against Liverpool recently.

"He is a sensational footballer," says Wolves captain Conor Coady.

As such, there are not many squads in world football that would not be improved by his presence. That is why, when Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham were all searching for a striker in January, envious glances were being cast in the direction of Molineux. Wolves have found themselves a reliable finisher who can make the difference for his team.

The curious thing when it comes to Jimenez's career is that though he joined Wolves to little fanfare in 2018, a low-key loan signing compared to the big-name arrivals such as Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio, he was no youngster. The Mexican turns 29 in May. His journey to the top has been a slow burner for a man with 81 caps for his country.

So how on earth did it transpire that a player of such obvious pedigree had started only 24 league games in European football before his 27th birthday?

After all, it is almost eight years since he first made his mark on English soil as part of the Mexico team that snatched Olympic gold from Neymar's Brazil at Wembley in 2012.

"The gold medal was an important moment for me and an important moment for the whole of Mexico," he says. "It is always special for me when I go back to London for that reason."

It is seven years since he scored in the Azteca Stadium for the first time as a Mexico player - an overhead kick against Panama. Six years since he embarked on this European adventure when he made the move to the then Spanish champions to play for Atletico Madrid.

He had big ambitions from the outset.

"It was always a dream as a footballer to compete in the best leagues in the world and those leagues are here in Europe," he explains. "You want to compete against the best players and that year at Atletico helped me a lot to become what I am now.

"It was difficult because it was the first time I was living alone but I think I adapted quickly to a new life. I learned that I had to be patient and I had work hard even if the opportunities were not there. I just had to keep working to find them."

Replacing Diego Costa was always going to be tough. The fact that Atletico also brought in Mario Mandzukic and Antoine Griezmann that same summer made it even tougher.

The pair each went on to hit the 20 goal mark that season. Jimenez had to settle for a place on the bench. No shame in that. But the time spent on the bench at Benfica took its toll.

"I spent three seasons at Benfica looking to be in the first eleven," says Jimenez. "Sometimes I got in and sometimes I didn't. Sometimes injuries denied me. Sometimes the strikers who were in my position, they were scoring and scoring so it was difficult to play."

While it is no surprise that the Premier League's biggest clubs are looking closely at Jimenez now, it is equally understandable that he should have been overlooked in the past.

Seventeen of his 21 league appearances for Atletico came off the bench and he was substituted in each of his four starts so he never completed the 90 minutes in La Liga.

The pattern continued at Benfica where 60 of his 80 appearances for the club came from the bench. He did not pass 1000 minutes in any of his first four seasons in Europe.

For all the qualities that he possessed, Jimenez failed to satisfy one of the most important criteria for any prospective suitor - he just did not play enough football.

"He was a player we looked at," one former scout at a top Premier League club tells Sky Sports. "We felt that he had a physical profile that was suited to English football. But there was this big question mark that surrounded his lack of game time."

Managers are very reluctant to look past that too.

"We only want to recruit players who are robust and want to play a lot of games," one current Premier League boss tells Sky Sports. "It means that people like me can work with a smaller squad and you have a better chance of having a settled team. It means that I can go on the training field and have all the players available.

"I want to work in a way that I have players available so I have to make the decision. I don't want a situation where we have two suspensions and four injuries so we are going with these players today. I don't want that. I want the ones selected to be there because they are the best players and that creates a competitive culture within a football club.

"If you look at the most successful teams, they tend to have a high availability of players throughout the season. Generally, if teams are comparable, the ones with the best player availability will succeed. So if you are looking for marginal gains it is really important."

That's Nuno Espirito Santo's ethos too. Perhaps surprisingly, he has found his ideal forward - someone who can go again and again - in the form of a man who'd not done that in years.

In Jimenez's case, the problem was not that he was unavailable. The problem was that he wasn't being selected. While his lack of minutes will have shaped his reputation, in his final season at Benfica, though starting only six league games, he featured in all but one of them.

He was more frustrated than anyone.

"It was four years of my career in total - one at Atletico and three at Benfica - where I was asking for more. I wanted more minutes. I knew I could play more."

There was talk of a loan move back to Mexico at one point but the deal was blocked by Benfica. There was a chance to go to China too. Jimenez, to his credit, turned that down.

"It was difficult because it was for a lot of millions," he admits. "But I knew it was not the time to make that decision to - I can say it - almost end my career. It is not the same being in China as being in Europe. I think that I made the right choice.

"I never quit. I always kept working and doing the things that I know with a smile on my face knowing that if my chance came I would be ready to take it. Now I am in a good moment."

With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to reassess Jimenez's record. For example, for all the excitement about his impact at Wolves, his minutes-per-goal record at Benfica was even better. His 18 league goals in Portugal came at a rate of one every 146 minutes. Even allowing for the fact that goals as a substitute can be easier to come by, that's top class.

"I think the people at Benfica have a good impression of me," he says.

But others have wilted when workload and responsibility has increased. Jimenez flourished. Wolves did not hesitate to make his move permanent after that first season and that wasn't just because he scored a goal every 240 minutes of Premier League football. It was because he was so robust that he played almost every minute of Premier League football.

That output is "freakish" in the words of one recruitment expert.

The boy who chose football over taekwondo as a youngster, who played volleyball and basketball, has demonstrated that he can cope. "I am an athlete," he says with pride.

Indeed, Jimenez believes that the nonstop grind of games - he has played 43 times for Wolves this season - has actually helped him more than the inactivity that preceded it.

That's why he laughs when there is talk of Wolves' hectic schedule.

"I was ready for this," he explains. "I did have some injuries in the past but maybe those injuries were happening because I wasn't having the minutes that I wanted. I was not competing as often as my colleagues so maybe that's why I had the injuries.

"Just keep working. That is what you have to do."

It rarely looks like hard work for Jimenez. The way that he glided past the defenders in scoring Wolves' winner against Tottenham on their last trip to the capital prior to Sunday's trip to West Ham offers inspiration but there are plenty of moments to choose from.

"The one against Manchester City when we came from two goals behind," he recalls. "The one against Southampton when we came from two goals behind. We know we can do more. Maybe the next nice moment we can score first and not wait for them to score."

As well as his goals, Jimenez provided three assists in the two wins over Manchester City - all of them for Adama Traore. The pair have combined for more goals than any other duo in the Premier League this season. "It is an important part of my job," says Jimenez. "Every time I score or assist I am proud of myself if I have helped the team to get a result."

Is he still adding to his game? "I think so," he adds. "I am asked this question a lot in my career and I always think the answer is yes because I always want to keep improving and becoming a better footballer. Every day we can learn something that makes us better."

Wolves are improving too and while some are speculating that the club will need Champions League football at Molineux next season if they are to retain the key personnel behind their success story, that is still a possibility. Qualification for the competition could yet come through their Premier League finish or by winning the Europa League.

"It would be amazing," says Jimenez. "We are competing in the Europa League and we have a good chance, I think. We have been playing some great games so if we can continue like that then I think we can achieve something. In the Premier League, everyone knows it's Liverpool's, but if we can keep going then we can compete at the highest level."

Away from the pitch, he has embraced English life - calm compared to the chaos of his native Mexico City. Such is his fame there that he has over three million twitter followers - more than five times that of his club. His English is good and he relishes the anonymity.

"I like to travel around the UK," he says. "There have not been as many opportunities this season because of the matches but I try to travel when the calendar gives me time. I have been to Salisbury, Bath, Stonehenge, Bristol. I even went up to Glasgow in Scotland."

The team spirit is strong too. Jimenez was joined by Patricio and Diogo Jota for the fun and games on the pitch when he found out that he was expecting a son. They are all close.

"We are like a family," he says of his team-mates. "Everything that we do we try to do together. We have lunch and dinner together. Sometimes it is one or two, sometimes it is more. In the dressing room, everyone laughs and jokes and creates a good atmosphere."

Everything has contributed to maximising his potential.

As for his actual family, Jimenez is looking forward to sharing many more special memories with them. The next World Cup in Qatar in 2022 is already on his mind.

"We saw some of the players with their children at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and I said to Daniela that maybe at the next World Cup it would be my turn to enjoy that moment," he reveals. "If everything goes to plan then my son will be two years old, a good age to start enjoying his football and watch his father scoring at a World Cup."

Jimenez will be 31 by then, the age at which that other famed Mexican striker Javier Hernandez called time on his European tour to return to North America. Perhaps this particular forward is planning to extend his stay on this side of the Atlantic for longer than that though. There is plenty of running left in his legs. He is making up for the lost years.

Raul Jimenez is having the time of his life.