Óscar Jiménez patiently waited for his opportunity for six years. He came to America in the winter of 2016. He came from building a modest career in Jaguares de Chiapas. There, at the discretion of a team in which everything was profit, Jiménez had responded very well. His arrival in Coapa represented the classic signing of a substitute goalkeeper: he was reliable, but he did not have the status or potential to take over as a starter for Las Águilas.
In that same market, América signed Agustín Marchesín, who came from Santos Laguna, another team without too many reflectors, but where the Argentine was confirmed as one of the best goalkeepers in the country. And that label was the one that seduced America. The bet could not have been better: Marchesín left with three titles under his arm in the two and a half years that he played with the Azulcremas, before leaving for European football with Porto. Jiménez was a starter in the interval that included Marchesín’s goodbye and the arrival of a successor goalkeeper. He did it well, and there was much talk that, perhaps, it was time to trust him definitively.
There was no way. The return of Guillermo Ochoa, after an eight-year odyssey in Europe, was sung. Marchesín’s gloves could only be filled with another top goalkeeper. Óscar Jiménez had to wait for his turn at bat once again. Ochoa’s constant hesitations, on his return and during his three-year stay in the second stage, reinforced the theory that América could have the goalkeeper it needed on the bench, because he always responded, because it was life insurance: yes something was wrong with the headline, Jiménez would be there to give certainty.
Ochoa left after deciding that he wanted to return to Europe. The non-renewal of the five-time World Cup winner gave Jiménez the key to the American goal. But América wanted to have a plan B, and for that reason they signed Luis Ángel Malagón, a 25-year-old goalkeeper who has been projected as a future occupant of the tricolor goal (although he has not fully established himself as a reliable goalkeeper). It was time to do justice: Jiménez waited for his opportunity and it came. Unlike what the board did in 2019, now they did not buy a hierarchy goalkeeper; They simply wanted someone who would compete with Jiménez, but with the imprint that he would be the starter.
And in nine games it has been confirmed that Jiménez is not a goalkeeper made for the América goal. On Saturday, against Atlas, he conceded two goals from Brian Lozano. The Uruguayan from Atlas tried from afar, as if he were sniffing out Jiménez’s insecurity, and in both cases it was a goal, with the obvious feeling that a goalkeeper cannot allow two goals like that. Jiménez is not the goalkeeper of those who “win games”; His merit, until now, was not to make mistakes, to do the basics. But the goals against Atlas make it clear that Jiménez is overwhelmed by the responsibility he now bears, a responsibility unknown throughout his career.
Jiménez was a Liga de Ascenso goalkeeper until he was 25, when he made the leap from Lobos to Jaguares in 2013. He was only a starter in the First Division for three and a half years. Since he came to America, he has only played 38 games in six years. He was a reliable replacement, but his capabilities were limited to that role. Now América is beginning to realize this, as in 2011 they did with Armando Navarrete, a goalkeeper who was Ochoa’s substitute for years and always responded when he had to save. But his stellar moment came when Ochoa went to Europe, and Navarrete barely lasted one tournament as a starter.
In football, things can be like this: sometimes it is better not to exceed the role of secondary actor, if what you want is to have the approval of the public. Jiménez is about to lose the opportunity that he seemed to deserve, that everyone believed that he deserved, and that finally confirmed that nothing was better for him than seeing the goal from the bench.