One of the pleasant surprises from AC Milan’s Coppa Italia victory against Cagliari in midweek was the performance of Alex Jimenez at left-back.
La Gazzetta dello Sport recall that Jimenez, who will turn 19 in May, turned quite a few heads with his speed and defensive grit during Tuesday’s win and his professional future will begin to emerge more clearly in the coming weeks.
For the moment, in bureaucratic terms, the situation is clear: the full-back has arrived at Milanello on loan with an option to buy and a buy-back in favour of Real Madrid. It is a famous clause that Los Blancos often use to protect their talents.
In short, while granting the purchasing club an option to permanently purchase the player, the final say still lies with the parent club. An obvious example is Brahim Diaz, who grew under the Rossoneri for three years (a one-year then a two-year loan) before returning to base.
It’s difficult now, in January, to imagine where Jimenez will be next season. The figures are decidedly attractive based on what Alex has shown so far given that he can be bought permanently for around €5m.
However, unlike Diaz, Real’s buy-back is based on different agreements. In fact, Madrid could only exercise the repurchase in the summer of 2025 and 2026. In other words: if Milan decide to buy him out in June, at least for the 2024-25 season Alex will certainly be a permanent Rossoneri player.
At that point the situation would be examined again in the summer of 2025, when they could bring him back home. The buy-back figures are not known, but they are different between 2025 and 2026, and it is reasonable to think that they will reach over €10m.
This is regarding the contractual situation, but then there is the on-field aspect. The personality and effectiveness with which Alex played his 80 minutes against Cagliari in the Coppa Italia lead us to think that Pioli will call him up even more frequently.
Jimenez has another advantage that should not be underestimated: in the first team he worked on playing on the left, but he can also play on the right which is his more natural position.
I think that’s a fantastic gamble. 5 mill odd affordable for a player of his qualities (shown so far)
JFC who signed off on such a bad deal, why put another buyback option in 2026??
Madrid has no RB or natural LB for the future. All they have to do is wait and then snatch him back for a very low fee. And they will do it.
We would literally be making one of the best teams itw even more stronger, and they only have to pay a fee of 5m.
Perez… what a genius.
BUY BUY BUY!!
This kid is great – imagine Jimenez on the right and Theo on the left with fast piercing forward runs on both sides!
Boom!
don’t don’t don’t buy
if we can get him without buyback option then maybe \
milan shouldn’t buy any players with buyback option we are not some small club to develop players for other clubs and allow that we are milan for god sake