Giménez, record by record

He turned 26 in 2021 but can be considered a soccer veteran. He is José María Giménez and, at the age at which others begin to mature, he does not stop accumulating records. On Friday, in the match that faced Uruguay against Paraguay, qualifying for the next World Cup, he turned 60 with his team. He has just won his second league title with Atlético (Although his role in 2014 was almost residual, he was a child who had just arrived at the rojiblanca discipline) and with his team he is on the way to playing his fourth Copa América and his third World Cup, with only 26 years. One of his next records is at the club level.

Continuity. Blessed continuity. In the case of 'El Comandante' asking that the injuries respect him. Because his dedication is undeniable, his commitment, charisma and his football, but also that the damn injuries have caused Giménez to only play 50%, 52% in the League (21 games out of 38), 47% in the Champions League (four matches of eight), being such an important footballer, called to play everything, has been the 12th most used field by Simeone (2,115 '). Savic, for example, 'his partner', played 3,744 ', the most. Giménez would have been by his side had it not been for the coronavirus, which prevented him from starting the season, and various muscle problems throughout the season.

“I arrived in Valladolid just in time”

Starting in Zorrilla, in the match in which Atlético won the eleventh league title in its history, it had not been so in previous days. Due to slight muscular problems that he dragged, although he asked to be there, as close as possible to the grass, to his companions. “When I got injured against Elche there were four games left and I spoke with Simeone. I wanted to be even though I didn't have to play because due to my physical conditions I wasn't there to do it, but I wanted to be. I trained the same, I did the recovery and at the same time I trained with the team at ‘half leg’. Take it easy, the coach told me. We need you to recover for the last day, and well it was. I didn't play any of the games because I wasn't there to play. I arrived in Valladolid, I arrived just but I arrived, “he confessed in an interview on Tele Vivo de Uruguay a week ago.

The previous season, 2019-20, he played curiously the same games as in this one, 21, and that is the great challenge at the club level that he has. Because he has said that he is staying, that he is still at Atlético, but with the hope that the muscular injuries will respect him once and for all, stop biting his legs every now and then and let him play as Savic this year, always available to Simeone and the team. Its significance is that. A giant with 26.