One aspect of Wolves’ rise back to the top of the English footballing table has been their connection with super agent Jorge Mendes.
The Portuguese negotiator – who represents leading figures in the game such as Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo – has influenced the Midlands-based club hugely, bringing names such as Rui Patrício, João Moutinho, Rúben Neves, Diogo Jota, Pedro Neto, Raúl Jiménez to Molineux.
Today, the spotlight is on the latter of those star names.
Jiménez was initially signed on a season-long loan from Benfica on 12th June 2018, where he earned £41k-a-week from that date until he became a Wolves player permanently on April 4th 2019 – Nuno Espirito Santo smashed the club’s record transfer fee, shelling out £30m to sign the Mexico international.
From that point on, the former Atletico Madrid striker’s wage rose from £41k-a-week to £41,231-a-week.
If you were to work out his total earnings while on loan, and then from the date he signed permanently until now, you would discover that Jiménez has earned a total of 3.74m in wages from Wolves.
Add that to his club-record £30m transfer fee, and the Mexican has cost Wolves £33.74m in total.
While that may seem a lot, the forward has actually been worth his weight in gold.
Jiménez has made 88 appearances for Wolves so far, scoring a highly respectable 39 goals while also grabbing 18 assists.
That means that the 28-year-old has cost Nuno’s side just £1.16m per goal, which is excellent value for money in this day and age.
His efforts in front of the sticks have seen Wolves flourish to sit sixth in the Premier League as things stand, while he has also been influential in helping them reach the last 16 of the Europa League – he has been the talisman of their rise from Championship also-rans to European quality.
Call yourself a Wolves expert? How much did each of these January signings cost?
Amongst a barrage of Mendes clients, Jiménez has arguably been the best capture.
In other news, two Wolves players are proving that this old-school tactic is still very much alive and kicking…