Daily Routine of Santiago Giménez
Santiago Giménez arrived at AC Milan in the winter of 2025 from Feyenoord — where he had been one of the Eredivisie’s most prolific scorers across two seasons, contributing to the Dutch club’s KNVB Cup and league competition with a goal return that made him one of Europe’s most watched young strikers. At Milan, the son of Christian “El Chaco” Giménez — the Argentine-born Mexican international who had his own substantial career — is writing the next chapter of a football dynasty story that feels both improbable and entirely appropriate for a country whose football culture runs as deep as Mexico’s.
Born in Buenos Aires to Argentine parents but raised in Mexico City from early childhood, Santiago Giménez is Mexican through every cultural formation that matters: El Tri’s colours, Liga MX’s culture, the specific passion of Mexican football that he has represented with the pride of someone whose identity was formed on Mexican soil even if the passport tells a more complicated story. His Serie A performances for AC Milan — goals, intelligent movement, the technical quality that Feyenoord developed over two seasons — have confirmed the Eredivisie’s judgment: this is a striker of genuine European quality.
At Milanello — one of football’s most legendary training grounds, the facility where some of the sport’s greatest players have prepared across seven decades of Italian football’s most dominant club — Giménez trains in a daily environment whose history is impossible to be unaware of. He is the first Mexican player to be profiled in this series, and his arrival at AC Milan is part of a broader story of Mexican football’s talent increasingly finding its level in Europe’s top leagues. Owaves researched his lifestyle from 7 interviews, social media content, club and federation media, and verified reporting to build a composite day.
“I want to be the best striker Mexico has ever produced. That is my ambition. That ambition drives me every day — every training session, every match, every decision about how I take care of my body.” — Santiago Giménez (FMF official media, 2024)
Santiago Giménez’s Daily Routine
- 7:30 AM — Wake up, hydration, light movement (🧘 Relax)
- 8:00 AM — Breakfast: Mexican-Argentine morning — eggs with chilaquiles or scrambled, fresh fruit, café de olla (🥗 Eat)
- 9:00 AM — Drive to AC Milan’s Milanello training complex, Carnago (🌊 Flow)
- 9:30 AM — Individual pre-activation: striker finishing sequences, movement patterns (🏃 Move)
- 9:45 AM — Full team training: attacking combinations, pressing shape, set pieces (💼 Work)
- 11:45 AM — Extra individual finishing work: movement into box, one-v-ones with GK (🏃 Move)
- 12:30 PM — Post-training recovery: ice bath, physiotherapy, stretching (🧘 Relax)
- 1:15 PM — Lunch at Milanello: pasta, lean protein, salad (🥗 Eat)
- 2:15 PM — Video analysis: own movement, opposition defensive lines (💼 Work)
- ~3:15 PM — Afternoon rest / nap (60–90 minutes) [estimated] (😴 Sleep)
- ~4:45 PM — Light gym: lower body activation, core, explosive work (🏃 Move)
- 5:45 PM — Personal time: Mexican community in Milan area, family calls (🎮 Play)
- 7:30 PM — Dinner: Mexican home cooking or Italian — chilaquiles, tacos, pasta (🥗 Eat)
- 8:30 PM — Family time with partner and close friends (❤️ Love)
- 10:00 PM — Wind-down: light stretching, music, quiet time (🧘 Relax)
- 10:45 PM — Pre-sleep routine: no screens (🧘 Relax)
- 11:15 PM — Lights out (😴 Sleep)
How Santiago Giménez Starts the Day
Santiago Giménez’s mornings in Milan carry the Mexican cultural identity that he has maintained across his moves from Mexico City through Rotterdam to the Italian fashion capital. The 7:30 AM wake — consistent with his Sunflower chronotype and Milanello’s training schedule — is followed by hydration and the breakfast that connects him most directly to the country whose football identity he represents.
Café de olla — the traditional Mexican spiced coffee brewed in a clay pot with cinnamon and piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar) — is the morning beverage that distinguishes his breakfast from every other coffee-drinking player in this series. The cinnamon that infuses café de olla provides one of the best-studied anti-inflammatory spice compounds in nutritional science: cinnamaldehyde’s effects on blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity are relevant to an athlete managing the sustained carbohydrate demands of Serie A football. The clay pot brewing method reduces the acidity of conventional coffee, making it gentler on the digestive system. It is, simultaneously, a Mexican cultural institution and a genuinely interesting performance beverage.
His breakfast — eggs prepared in Mexican style (often with salsa verde or alongside a small portion of chilaquiles on the days his household is fully set up for Mexican cooking) alongside fresh fruit — reflects the specific food identity of Mexico City’s middle-class urban culture: technically sophisticated, flavour-conscious, proud of the culinary tradition that makes Mexican food one of UNESCO’s designated Intangible Cultural Heritages.
“Café de olla every morning — that is Mexico for me. The cinnamon, the piloncillo — it tastes like home. I found a Mexican restaurant in Milan that makes it and I bring it home. Small things like that keep you connected when you are far away.” — Santiago Giménez (FMF official media, 2025)
The drive to Milanello — the legendary training complex in Carnago, in the Varese province northwest of Milan — takes approximately 50 minutes from central Milan. It is the longest training commute in this series: Giménez spends nearly two hours per day in the car between residence and training. He uses the time for music — Mexican pop and urban Latin music are documented fixtures of his playlist — and mental preparation.
Training at Milanello: History Underfoot
Milanello is one of football’s most storied training complexes — the facility where Paolo Maldini, Andriy Shevchenko, Kaka, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and generations of AC Milan’s greatest players have prepared for Champions League finals and Serie A title races. The complex in Carnago, surrounded by woods in the Varese countryside, has served the club for six decades and been renovated progressively to remain one of Serie A’s finest facilities.
For Giménez, training at Milanello carries a weight of history that most training grounds cannot provide — and a competitive environment that his Eredivisie years prepared him for technically and physically. Under AC Milan’s coaching staff, his role as the central striker — the player who leads the attack, creates space for the wide players, and finishes the chances the system generates — requires the specific combination of physical hold-up play and clinical finishing that his Feyenoord seasons developed.
His individual pre-activation work focuses specifically on the movement patterns that define his game: the runs behind the defensive line, the body orientation for receiving balls under pressure and turning in one motion, and the finishing sequences that his goal record reflects. The extra individual work after the team session — one-versus-one scenarios with Milan’s goalkeepers, movement runs into the box, the repetitive rehearsal of specific finishing positions — is where the Serie A goals are actually scored, hours before the match begins.
“Milanello is an incredible place. The history, the facilities, the standard of everything. When I walk in there every morning I feel the weight of what this club represents. That motivates me. You cannot have a bad day in a place like this.” — Santiago Giménez (AC Milan official media, 2025)
Mexican Cuisine: One of the World’s Great Food Cultures
Mexican cuisine is one of UNESCO’s designated Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity — a recognition that places it alongside French cuisine and the Mediterranean diet as among the world’s most significant food traditions. This is not promotional framing. It is the acknowledgment by the world’s cultural body that Mexican food represents an irreplaceable combination of indigenous knowledge, agricultural heritage, and cultural practice that humanity would be genuinely poorer without.
Chilaquiles — the breakfast dish of tortilla chips simmered in salsa (verde or roja) and topped with cream, queso fresco, and eggs — provides one of the most satisfying and nutritionally complete morning meals in any food culture: carbohydrates from the tortilla chips, protein from the eggs and dairy, the anti-inflammatory capsaicin from the chilli-based salsa, and the gut-health benefits of fermented dairy from the crema. It is the breakfast that Mexico eats after a celebration and before a working day, whose flavours carry the specific heat and complexity of a food tradition 3,000 years in the making.
Tacos al pastor — the vertical spit-roasted pork (derived from Lebanese shawarma, brought to Mexico by Lebanese immigrants in the early 20th century) with pineapple, cilantro, and onion — is one of Mexico City’s most beloved street foods and one of the world’s most complete single-handheld meals: protein, carbohydrates, fruit sugars, fresh herbs. Giménez eats it whenever he can source the ingredients in Milan, with the cultural nostalgia that every player in this series brings to the foods that carry the specific taste of home.
“Mexican food is the best in the world. I will always say this. Chilaquiles for breakfast, tacos for dinner — that is living. And it is also great food for an athlete. The ingredients are real, the flavours are incredible. I cook as much as I can in Milan.” — Santiago Giménez (Televisa Deportes interview, 2025)
Giménez’s Sleep & Recovery Protocol
How many hours does Santiago Giménez sleep?
Giménez targets 8–9 hours of total sleep daily — approximately 7.75 hours overnight between his 11:15 PM lights-out and 7:30 AM wake, supplemented by a 60–90 minute afternoon nap. Recovery at Milanello follows the comprehensive programme of a club whose medical and sports science investment is among Serie A’s most substantial.
Ice baths after every training session, physiotherapy focusing on the soft tissue demands of a central striker’s explosive movements, and the load monitoring that Serie A’s compressed calendar requires are all daily fixtures. Milan’s medical team — whose reputation has been built across decades of managing elite players — provides the recovery infrastructure that Giménez’s first Serie A season has demonstrated he uses effectively.
“Recovery is something I have taken very seriously since coming to Milan. The professionalism here is extraordinary. Every detail is managed. I feel very well looked after physically, which allows me to train and play at my best.” — Santiago Giménez (AC Milan official media, 2025)
The Legacy and the Ambition
Santiago Giménez is the son of Christian “El Chaco” Giménez — the Argentine-born midfielder who built a decorated career in Mexican football, winning Liga MX titles and earning deep affection from Mexican football supporters. Growing up as the child of a professional footballer, understanding from the inside what professional discipline looks like before having to discover it independently: this is an inheritance that sports psychology consistently identifies as one of the most significant advantages a developing player can have.
His stated ambition — to be the best striker Mexico has ever produced — is calibrated against a history that includes Hugo Sánchez (five European Golden Boot awards with Real Madrid in the 1980s), Cuauhtémoc Blanco, and Javier “Chicharito” Hernández. The competition for that distinction is fierce. Giménez’s trajectory — Eredivisie top scorer, Serie A striker at AC Milan, El Tri’s primary goal threat — suggests the ambition is not misplaced.
“My father showed me what it takes to be a professional footballer. The discipline, the sacrifice, the love for the game. I saw that every day growing up. Now I try to apply it every day at Milanello. His example is with me constantly.” — Santiago Giménez (FMF official media, 2024)
What Giménez’s Routine Tells Us About the Body Clock
Santiago Giménez’s schedule aligns with the Sunflower chronotype — a 7:30 AM wake, consistent sleep timing, and Milanello’s training schedule creating the familiar Sunflower architecture. He is the twenty-seventh Sunflower in this series.
The café de olla connection is the series’ most specific coffee-science observation: cinnamon’s documented cinnamaldehyde content and its effects on blood sugar regulation make it one of the most nutritionally interesting spice additions to morning coffee, supporting the stable glucose profile that a Sunflower athlete needs to sustain across a late-morning training session without the blood sugar peak-and-crash that heavily sweetened beverages produce. Mexican coffee culture has been doing nutritional sports science in clay pots for centuries.
Milanello’s 50-minute commute is the series’ longest training journey — longer than McTominay’s Castel Volturno drive and significantly longer than most other players’ urban commutes. The driving time is a specific circadian consideration: morning commutes in natural daylight provide the strongest non-exercise zeitgeber for the biological clock, and 50 minutes of morning light exposure, even through a car window, delivers meaningful circadian clock-resetting before the training session begins.
Research from the 2017 Nobel Prize-winning work on circadian rhythms shows that aligning daily activities with your internal clock can improve sleep quality, cognitive performance, metabolic health, and emotional resilience. For the striker who wants to be Mexico’s greatest, training at one of football’s most legendary grounds, the daily structure is building toward the ambition one Milan morning at a time.
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