Raul Jimenez explains reason behind dressing up as pirate after goal

Raul Jimenez explains the reason behind dressing up as a pirate after his goal against Preston to knock them out of the Carabao Cup.

The Wolves goalscorer’s celebration against the Championship outfit in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night has already been dubbed as ‘celebration of the season’.

The forward made his first start of the season in the cup tie – after coming on as a substitute in Wolves’ 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.

And the Mexico international put Bruno Lage’s side ahead inside 10 minutes at Molineux as he turned in Rayan Ait Nouri’s cross.

To the surprise of many, Jimenez then grabbed a hook from behind the goal, before putting on an eye patch on and posing as a pirate after his strike. 

The celebration came after the striker’s Wolves team-mates had given him the nickname ‘The Pirate’ after claiming that his protective head cover made him look like he was one.

Jimenez had used the eye patch as a celebration for a goal that he scored in pre-season, but the addition of the hook was a step-up on Tuesday.

He spoke with Wolves’ media team, reflecting on the result and his celebration…

@wolves RRRRR J 9 🏴‍☠️🦜 #RaulJimenez #Pirate #piratesofthecaribbean ♬ original sound – wolves

Interviewer: Raul, congratulations. First win and your first goal of the season. Is it good to be back?

RJ: Yeah, it’s really good to be back. Starting eleven and winning our first game in the cup. So it’s nice to be back scoring again.

Interviewer: How was your recovery period?I s it nice to be now back and playing? Do you feel fully fit, fully ready?

RJ: Yeah, I’m ready. I’m fit, ready to start scoring again. To be there with the team helping, every time I ‘m going to be in the team, I’m going to do the best for us.

Interviewer: Talk us through your goal celebration. Where did the inspiration come from? It’s amazing.

RJ: Well, I was planning since the pre-season having this kind of thing, so I hope I can score more and do it more times.

Interviewer: Well in preseason we saw it first with the eye patch. This time you’ve had a hook. What’s next? Is there going to be a parrot on the shoulder?

RJ: You need to wait for me to score again and let’s see what’s coming next.

Interviewer: I’m excited. I’m excited. Adama has scored an incredible goal again this evening as well, and his first one back since he returned from loan. Are you pleased for your teammate?

RJ: Yeah, of course. He deserves it. He has been training hard, he has been involved in all that we do, so it’s good for him to be on the score sheet

Interview: Into the next round of the Carabao Cup. Is it too early to say how far can we go?

RJ: Yeah, it’s early, but we put some targets before we start so we want to achieve them and well, we started going well and we want to go as far as we can.

Interviewer: Well, fingers cross. Congratulations again, Raul, and thank you very much. Thank you. See you.

“It’s nice to be back and scoring again. I am ready, and I am fit.”

🇲🇽💬 pic.twitter.com/akqwRBKWul

— Wolves (@Wolves) August 24, 2022

Bruno Lage was pleased that the changes he made to the side in the Carabao Cup victory over Preston North End saw Wolves produce a scintillating opening 45 minutes of football.

On progressing in the cup

“In the first-half, what we did it was good. When it went 2-0 and we didn’t score the penalty and then we chance for Preston to score, the game was unbalanced, but every time we tried to be in control of the game.

“I think we did 45 minutes at a top level because we didn’t give any chance to Preston to play their game, but we know how tough they are because five games without conceding goals, and today we had great chances to score a lot of goals. I know the spirit of the Championship, I know the spirit Preston and they are a team who is tough every time to play against, and they did everything.

“But I think we continued to play, we were solid when Ruben [Neves], Neto and Guedes came into the game and they try to control on the game, also Jonny and Daniel [Podence], to control the game with and without the ball, so we deserved the victory. Now it’s to continue to work.”

On giving minutes to returning players

“I’m happy and now it’s continuing to look forward. Happy with the performance, happy with the victory, we know what the meaning of the cup for the club, so we respect the league cup and it’s one more moment to put players who come from injury like Semedo, Adama [Traore], Joao [Moutinho] and Raul [Jimenez], and one more time for the players like Matheus [Nunes] and Guedes who only just arrived.

“It gives them time to get to know their teammates better. We had the pre-season and now we have this time where we know we need to have good performances.

“We need to give minutes to everyone to be fit and to be ready to play because the competition is again in another three or four days and we need everyone to be ready to play in this level, to play in this rhythm and to play as we did today.”

On finding the net

“It’s the team and the way the team wants to play. High pressure. I think the first 45 minutes and the way we pressed, the way we played and the chances we created, it was so good.

“After, you might expect some players without the rhythm and the minutes, like the ones I said, can happen on a little break, but that’s why we want to create this squad with a lot of solutions to continue in a good rhythm. We created more than enough chances to win with more goals, but for now, I’m happy with what we did and happy with the goals we scored.”

On Jimenez’s goalscoring return

“I’m so happy that Raul scored again because he’s an important player for us. I was very sorry for the injury that meant we lost him in that game against Besiktas because the way he started the pre-season it was good, two games, two goals, and he started very well this game with one more goal.

“It’s important for him and important for the team to start to think the work we are doing and believe the work we are doing. The plan was for him to play 60 minutes, he played 80 in a good level, but now we need to recover and see what happens on Sunday because it’s a tough game against Newcastle and we will be ready to play at this level.”

On possible transfer activity

“Some things will happen until the end of the month. As you can see, we are active in this moment, so let’s see what can happen. We have one or two players who maybe if they don’t feel that they have the chance to play here, maybe they have a chance to move, and we need to continue to find players in the positions that we need.”

Ryan Lowe took plenty of positives from Preston North End’s competitive Carabao Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers and said there was no shame in his side bowing out of the competition against Premier League opposition.

He told iFollow PNE: “Fantastic, especially second half. I thought moments in the first half there were some good passages of play and only for that little bit of killer instinct. [If] we just took a little bit more care in the first half, there was opportunities for us.

“We made many changes tonight, because we felt Saturday is more important, but it’s more important that these lads need to play for when they are called upon. I thought they were fantastic, well worthy of a goal second half, well worthy of another one really because if that goes in you take them to penalties.

“I’m proud of the group, disappointed as well obviously because you want to score more goals, you want to get the draw if you could take it to penalties but definitely no shame in that performance I thought the lads were fantastic.”

“They showed us some massive respect when the five minutes went up because they kept the ball, they didn’t want to score, they just didn’t want to give it us back because we knew we had a little bit of a threat towards the back end.

“The quality they’ve got is phenomenal, that’s why they’re in the Premier League, they’re well-coached, fantastic players. But it was a nice evening to watch and see and it’s nice to see my players take part and competing with these players, which is a privilege.”

Ben Woodburn was one of a number of players who impressed the gaffer, who admitted that the midfielder’s goal took him by surprise slightly.

“When he swung his left foot, I thought, ‘What are you doing?’ Then it rolls into the bottom corner. I think he’s given the ‘keeper the eyes. He’s done fantastically well in there tonight, Ben, in that No.10 position he had to drop down.

“I was pleased that the lads stuck to the game plan, especially second half. If you look at it that way, we won the second half, I know there’s no consolation for that but the fact of that matter is for us, the belief for us to go forward and keep winning games of football wherever we play is important.

Academy products Lewis Leigh and Jacob Slater came off the bench late on and there was further representation from the club’s youth set-up on the night with Dana Amaral and Mikey O’Neill also on the bench while first year scholar Kaedyn Kamara travelled with the squad.

“It’s part of what I do, I want to bring the youth together, the youth have got a fantastic youth system,” Ryan continued. “Young Kaedyn Kamara travelled with us today, he’s 16-years-old.

“As for Jacob Slater, he’s a phenomenal player. Left-sided player, he can play left-wing back, left centre half, he’s got all the attributes to be a fantastic player.