Davinson Sánchez Mina (born 12 June 1996) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club Tottenham Hotspur and the Colombia national team. Despite initially coming through

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

's youth academy, Sánchez relocated to

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

and made his professional debut for Atlético Nacional in 2013; collectively, he acheieved four domestic league titles, two Copa Colombia's, a

Superliga Colombiana The Superliga Colombiana (''Colombian Superleague''), officially known as Superliga BetPlay DIMAYOR due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is an official competition contested between the winners of the Apertura and Finalización t ...

, and a

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

during his time with Nacional. Sánchez made the leap to European football in 2016, joining Eredivisie side AFC Ajax. In his first season with the club, he won the Ajax Player of the Year Award and reached the

2017 UEFA Europa League Final The 2017 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, the 46th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 8th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Euro ...

. Sánchez became Tottenham Hotspur's club-record signing in 2017, costing them around £42 million, a record that was topped by

Tanguy Ndombélé Tanguy Ndombele Alvaro (born 28 December 1996) is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Napoli, on loan from Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, and the France national team. Early life Tanguy Ndombele ...

who signed for Spurs in 2019. At youth level, Sánchez represented

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

at the

2013 South American U-17 Championship The 2013 South American Under-17 Football Championship ( es, link=no, Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-17 Argentina 2013) was the 15th U-17 tournament for national teams affiliated with CONMEBOL. It was held in Argentina. This tournament gave four b ...

and was part of the

squads that participated at the

2015 South American U-20 Championship The 2015 South American Youth Football Championship ( es, Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 "Juventud de América" Uruguay 2015, pt, Campeonato Sulamericano Sub-20 "Juventude da América" Uruguai 2015, region=BR) was the 27th edition of the biennia ...

and the

2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the twentieth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The competition took place for the first time in New Zealand, the third time on Oceanian soil after ...

, respectively. He made his senior debut for

in 2016 and has represented the nation at two editions of the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

, and the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

Club career

Atlético Nacional

As a youth, Sánchez played in the youth academy of

, but after his parents moved, he was transferred to Atlético Nacional, where he was educated under the wings of Juan Carlos Osorio. The defender made his debut for the senior team on 27 October 2013, in a 0–1 loss to

Boyacá Chicó Boyacá is the name of a region in Colombia. It may refer to other connections to Colombia: * Battle of Boyacá * Boyacá Department (Gran Colombia) * Boyacá Department ** Boyacá, Boyacá, a municipality * Boyacá State, a former state * P ...

. Osorio put the player in the starting lineup and he completed the entire match. On 2 March 2016, Sánchez scored his first goal for Nacional in a 3–0 victory over

Sporting Cristal Club Sporting Cristal S.A. is a Peruvian sports club located in the city of Lima, best known for its association football, football team. It was founded on 13 December 1955 in the Rímac District, Rímac district by engineer Richard Bentín Mujica ...

from Peru in the

. Due to his performances for Nacional, foreign clubs including Barcelona, Flamengo, and Ajax showed an interest in signing the player. Barcelona made a formal offer to sign the player, but Sánchez declined the offer because he didn't want to start in FC Barcelona B, the reserve team. He won the Copa Libertadores 2016 against Ecuadorian Independiente del Valle.

Ajax

In June 2016, Sánchez signed a five-year contract with Dutch side Ajax, until 2021. The club paid a transfer fee of €5 million to Atlético Nacional. A few days earlier, Ajax had signed Sánchez's compatriot Mateo Cassierra, thus making him the second Colombian in the squad. Sánchez joined Ajax after Nacional had finished its participation in the

. Sánchez's Ajax debut on 13 August ended in a 2–2 tie with Roda JC Kerkrade in which he started and played the 90 minutes. His first goal with the club was on 24 September against PEC Zwolle. On 8 May 2017, he was named as the best player of the season for Ajax.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 18 August 2017, Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur announced that they had agreed a move for Sánchez signing a six-year contract subject to a work permit, for a reported transfer fee of up to £42 million. He made his debut on 27 August as a substitute for Mousa Dembélé in the 92nd minute in a 1–1 draw with Burnley. On 15 May 2018, Sánchez signed a new contract with Tottenham, keeping him at the club until 2024. On 10 February 2019, Sánchez scored his first goal for Tottenham in the Premier League game against Leicester City. On 1 June 2019, Sánchez was an unused substitute for Tottenham in the 2019 Champions League Final against Liverpool. On 11 February 2021, Sánchez scored twice, his first goals in two years, in the

2020–21 FA Cup The 2020–21 FA Cup was the 140th edition of the oldest football tournament in the world, the Football Association Challenge Cup. It was sponsored by Emirates and known as the Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship purposes. The winners qualified for t ...

fifth round match against Everton that eventually ended in a 5–4 loss for Tottenham after extra time.

International career

Youth teams

In November 2011, Sánchez was called up to dispute the

2011 South American U-15 Championship The 2011 South American Under-15 Football Championship ( es, Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-15 Uruguay 2011) was the 5th U-15 tournament for national teams affiliated with CONMEBOL. It was held in Uruguay from 17 November to 4 December 2011. Brazi ...

, where his team finished as runner-up behind Brazil; Sánchez was appointed as his team's captain for the tournament. Sánchez represented Colombia U-17 side at the

, where he appeared twice in the group stage. On 6 January 2015, he was included in Carlos Restrepo's 23-man list for the

, where Colombia secured qualification to the

and the Olympic play-off for Rio 2016 after finishing runner-up. On 6 May, Sánchez was named in Colombia final 23-man team for the U-20 World Cup, where his team exited the tournament in the round of 16 after falling to the United States. Despite not disputing the Olympics, Sánchez appeared in both legs for the play-off series against the United States, in which Colombia qualified to the Olympics for the first team since

Barcelona 1992 The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

after finishing the series 3–2 on aggregate.

Senior team

Colombia manager José Pékerman called up Sánchez for a training squad with the senior

squad in February 2016. On 26 August 2022, he was named in Colombia's squad for the

2018 World Cup qualifiers Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

against Venezuela and Brazil. On 19 November, Sánchez made his debut against Argentina. In May 2018, he was named in Colombia's preliminary 35-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

in Russia. In June 2018, he was named in Colombia's final 23-man squad for the

in Russia. He played in all three group matches and their round of 16 match against England. In June 2019, he started in three of the four games at the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 ...

, helped the team keep a clean sheet and beat Argentina for the first time in 12 years. The team however lost in the quarter-final against Chile after a penalty shoot-out. On 10 June 2021, Sánchez was included in

Reinaldo Rueda Reinaldo Rueda Rivera (born 16 April 1957) is a Colombian Association football, football coach. When he was the coach of the Colombia national under-20 football team, Colombia U-20 team, they finished 3rd at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championsh ...

's 23-man squad for the

2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to 10 July 2021. The tour ...

in Brazil. He featured in all of Colombia's matches as the team secured bronze after defeating Peru 3–2 for the third-place playoff. On 19 November 2022, Sánchez scored his first international goal in a 2–0 friendly win against Paraguay.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Colombia'a goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Sánchez goal.''

Honours

Atlético Nacional *

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is the ...

: 2013 Apertura, 2013 Finalización, 2014 Apertura, 2015 Finalización * Copa Colombia:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

; runner-up:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

runner-up:

Ajax * UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2016–17 Tottenham Hotspur *

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

runner-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

* UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2018–19 Colombia U23 * CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off for the 2016 Summer Olympics:

Individual * Ajax Player of the Year (Rinus Michels Award): 2016–17 *UEFA Champions League Breakthrough XI: 2017

References

External links

Profile
at the Tottenham Hotspur F.C. website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez, Davinson 1996 births Living people Colombian people of African descent Sportspeople from Cauca Department Colombian footballers Association football defenders Atlético Nacional footballers AFC Ajax players Jong Ajax players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Categoría Primera A players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Premier League players Colombia youth international footballers Colombia under-20 international footballers Colombia international footballers 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players Colombian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Colombian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Colombian expatriate sportspeople in England