In Porto, Santiago Giménez carries a small but notable mark for Mexican football in Europe: he remains the most recent player from his country to score in the UEFA Champions League.
Key takeaways
- Giménez last scored in the competition on 18 February 2025.
- His goal came for AC Milan against former club Feyenoord in the second leg of the Champions League play-off.
- Milan opened the scoring through the Mexican forward but were eliminated from the tie.
- No Mexican player has scored in the Champions League since that night.
- Giménez recorded six Champions League goals during the 2024-25 campaign.
A familiar opponent in Milan
The decisive reference point came at San Siro, where Giménez faced Feyenoord only months after leaving Rotterdam for Milan. Having built his European reputation with the Dutch side, he needed only a few minutes to find space in the penalty area and put the Rossoneri ahead in a demanding knockout match.
It was a goal with particular weight: a Mexican striker scoring on the continent’s biggest club stage against the team through which he had become one of Dutch football’s most prominent forwards. Yet the early breakthrough did not alter the outcome of the play-off, as Feyenoord won the aggregate contest and progressed in the tournament.
The Mexican scoring wait continues
Giménez, now at Porto, has remained the last Mexican scorer in the Champions League since that February evening in 2025. Mexico has continued to have players attached to clubs around Europe, but none has added a newer Champions League goal to the national record.
His six-goal return across the 2024-25 edition also placed him among Mexico’s stronger individual scoring campaigns in the competition. Until another Mexican finds the net in the tournament, the goal against Feyenoord remains the country’s latest moment on the Champions League scoresheet.
