Al Ahli playmaker Luis Jimenez has ruled out a return home to Chile anytime soon as he is confident of negotiating an extension to his stay at the defending Arabian Gulf League champions.
Jimenez, who is registered as Ahli’s Asian player after getting Palestinian papers before the start of the 2013/14 season, has been linked to a number of Chilean clubs in recent weeks, including Colo-Colo and University of Chile, but the 30-year-old former Lazio, Inter and Parma midfielder insisted such a move was not possible as he has no plans to leave the Rashid Stadium.
“I do not know where they have got this news from,” the midfielder, who last played in the Chilean championship in 2002 for Palestino before moving to Italy, said in Chilean media.
“The truth is it is impossible for me to move to Chile at this moment.”
Jimenez, who arrived at Ahli in 2011 after nine seasons in Italy, is hoping to sit down with the management in January to discuss an extension to his contract, which expires at the end of this season.
“The truth is I am very comfortable here and the club treats me very well,” Jimenez said.
“I do not want to leave and the club management has promised to sit down with me in January to discuss a contract extension.”
Meanwhile, Ahli have failed in their bid to bring in Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero from Brazilian club Corinthians.
Guerrero, who at US$4 million (Dh14.7m) a year is among the highest-paid football stars in the Americas, was reportedly offered a three-year deal, worth $5m a year, by Ahli. Guerrero was expected to make the deal official in January.
According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, however, Guerrero has changed his mind since and rejected Ahli’s offer, and the negotiations between the two parties have come to a standstill.
arizvi@thenational.ae
