Alexis Sánchez

Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (; born 19 December 1988), also known mononymously as Alexis, is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Marseille and the Chile national team. He is often lauded as the greatest Chilean player of all time.

Dubbed "''El Niño Maravilla''" (The Wonder Child), Sánchez began his senior club career playing for Cobreloa, and signed with Udinese in 2006, aged 18; he won consecutive league titles while on loan to Colo-Colo and River Plate. Sánchez was the subject of a record association football transfer when he signed for Barcelona in 2011 in a transfer worth €37.5 million, becoming the most expensive Chilean player of all time. There, Sánchez won six trophies, including a La Liga title and a Copa del Rey. He then joined Arsenal in 2014 in a transfer worth £31.7 million (€35 million), and won two FA Cups, the 2015 PFA Fans' Player of the Year, and was voted into the 2015 PFA Team of the Year. In 2018, he moved to league rivals Manchester United in a swap deal; he signed for Inter Milan a year later, and won a Serie A title and a Coppa Italia.

Sánchez made his senior international debut for Chile in 2006 at age 18, and has since earned 152 caps, appearing in eight major tournaments and becoming both his country's most capped player and all-time top goalscorer. He led Chile to their first victory in a major tournament by winning the 2015 Copa América, scoring the winning penalty in the final; he captained the team to a repeat of this triumph at the Copa América Centenario, winning the Golden Ball for Best Player.

Club career

Early career

Sánchez had a brief step with a Universidad Católica Academy based in Rancagua in 1999, being coached by the Chilean former international footballer René Valenzuela. In addition to this, he represented the Escuela Bernardo O'Higgins team from Tocopilla in national championships.

Cobreloa

Born in Tocopilla, Sánchez was a product of C.D. Cobreloa's prolific youth ranks where he was teammate of current Chile national team players such as Charles Aránguiz and Eduardo Vargas. In February 2005, Sánchez was promoted to the senior first team by manager Nelson Acosta.

Sánchez's made his debut against Deportes Temuco in February and scored his first professional goal in a 2–1 victory over Deportes Concepción on 18 March. He played his first Copa Libertadores game against Once Caldas aged 16, which made him one of the youngest players on debut for the tournament.

After an impressive season with Cobreloa, Sánchez caught the attention of Serie A club Udinese, which signed him for a £1.7 million fee, on 21 April 2006. Udinese, however, began a maturation project with Sánchez and immediately loaned him to Chilean giants Colo-Colo in a season-long deal.

Colo-Colo

Sánchez debuted for Colo-Colo on 23 June 2006 in a 1–1 draw with Antofagasta; he scored his first goal on 29 October during the Chilean football derby against Universidad de Chile in a 4–2 win. His good performances allowed him to break into the starting lineup after successfully challenging veteran striker Mario Cáceres, and he then began partnering Humberto Suazo in the forward position. On 1 November, he scored a brace in a 4–4 league draw against Deportes La Serena. as well as his first continental goal in a 7–2 thrash over Alajuelense from Costa Rica for the Copa Sudamericana. Nevertheless, Colo-Colo was runner-up of that tournament after losing the final against Pachuca of Mexico. On 23 December 2006, Sánchez won his first professional title after being starter in the Torneo Clausura final against Audax Italiano which his team won 3–2.

The next season, on 23 March 2007, he scored his first Copa Libertadores goals against Caracas at Cúcuta where he netted a hat-trick to a 4–0 away win. On 12 May, Sánchez scored his first and only one league goal during a 3–1 home win over Santiago Wanderers, key in the race for title with Universidad Católica which Colo-Colo finally reached after beat Palestino 1–0 at Monumental the last matchday. Noteworthy, it meant the club's 26th league title.

After Sánchez's impressive FIFA U-20 World Cup (where Chile achieved the third place with José Sulantay as coach), his loan with Colo-Colo expired and on 15 August 2007, he joined Argentina's River Plate on loan from Udinese.

Udinese

After a successful season in Argentina, Sánchez left South America in July 2008 to join Udinese, where he would meet up with Chilean compatriot Mauricio Isla. Sánchez made his non-competitive debut in a 3–0 win over Bassano and was named the man of match. On 14 September, he played his first Serie A match in a 1–0 loss with Juventus and four days later, he made his European debut against Borussia Dortmund. On 19 October 2008, Sánchez scored his first league goal against Lecce. After this first goal, Sánchez got into a minor slump, in which he took much criticism. The criticism ended after scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute against Bologna in a 1–0 win, being named the man of match.

The next season, Sánchez played an important role for Udinese in the Coppa Italia, being a key player in the team that eliminated Milan, assisting Gökhan Inler for the winning goal. In the semi-final second leg, Sánchez was the man of match after playing a successful game against Roma, including scoring his first Coppa Italia goal in the 81st minute. It was not enough, however, as the aggregate score finished 2–1 in favour of Roma. By the end of this year, Sánchez scored a total of 5 goals (4 at the end of tournament) in 32 appearances.

On 27 February 2011, Sánchez scored four of his team's seven goals as Udinese comfortably defeated Palermo 7–0, playing only the first 52 minutes of the game. This event meant he broke the record of goals scored by a Chilean player (in a single match) in Serie A, beating the records set by countrymen Marcelo Salas and Iván Zamorano.

During his successful season at Udinese, Sánchez and Italian striker Antonio Di Natale became one of the best scoring duos in Serie A; they tallied 39 goals between them, two goals short of the Alessandro Del Piero–David Trezeguet duo that completed 41 goals in the 2007–08 season. In recognition of his achievements, Sánchez was named the world's most promising youngster of the 2011 season by the users of FIFA.com, where users had to choose between Sánchez, Gareth Bale, Javier Pastore, Ganso and Neymar in a poll. Sánchez ranked 56th in the May 2011 edition of Castrol Performance Index and 24th among the forwards.

Barcelona

On 20 July 2011, Barcelona confirmed they had agreed to a €26 million fee (including €11.5 million in certain bonuses) with Udinese for the transfer of Sánchez and he became the first Chilean to play for the club. "Sánchez is very young," said then-manager Pep Guardiola; "He can play in all three attacking positions, he shows intense defensive skills, he's direct and from what I've been told, he's a very nice kid." The transfer was finalised five days later when he passed a medical and signed a five-year contract. "I want to learn from players like Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández—and I want to help the club win more titles," said Sánchez.

Sánchez's debut season for Barcelona was mired with short-term injuries. He made his debut on 14 August 2011 against archrivals Real Madrid in the 2011 Supercopa de España first leg away match, suffering a thigh injury after a challenge by Marcelo. Barcelona won the tie 5–4 on aggregate. He made his return two weeks later as a substitute in the 2011 UEFA Super Cup, won by Barca 2–0. Sánchez then started the opening match of La Liga, at home against Villarreal, and scored his first goal in a 5–0 win. A week later, on 10 September, he was stretchered off after 30 minutes following a challenge from Dani Estrada in a domestic league match against Real Sociedad. Sánchez returned on 1 November in an away match against Viktoria Plzeň. On 10 December, he scored Barça's equaliser against Real Madrid in a match they went on to win 3–1 away at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. On 14 February 2012, Sánchez scored the first and second UEFA Champions League goals of his career in Barcelona's 3–1 victory against Bayer Leverkusen.

In the 2012–13 campaign, on 2 October 2012 Sánchez scored the first goal for Barcelona in a 2–0 away win against Benfica. On 10 February 2013, then scored his first goal of the Liga season in Barça's 6–1 home win against Getafe. From February onwards, Sánchez scored in matches against Deportivo de La Coruña, Mallorca, Athletic Bilbao, Real Betis, Atlético Madrid and Espanyol to end the season with eight league goals. Barcelona won the league title, ending the season with 100 points.

On 26 October 2013, Sánchez scored the winning goal as ''Barça'' beat Real Madrid 2–1 at Camp Nou in the first '' Clásico'' fixture of the 2013–14 La Liga season. On 5 January 2014, Sánchez scored his first hat-trick for Barcelona in a 4–0 win against Elche

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases