Alexis Sanchez: A Hot Chilean Pepper Who Destroyed Any Defence

The Wonder Child, as Sanchez is often called, is deservedly considered one of the best Chilean footballers of all time. Being a pretty small guy (1.68 metres), he is rather fast with great dribbling, so often compared with Lionel Messi. In Chile, however, his role and importance to the team are even bigger than Lionel’s one in Argentina, while on the club level, his achievements are not so impressive. Still, Alexis joined the elite list of players of the latest decade and looks like the one who still has something to show us at his 33.

Sanchez came to this world in Tocopilla, which is a city in northern Chile, in 1988. It happened at the end of the year, on December 19. Although the guy was very active and had great physical development, his first football academy appeared only in 2004 when he joined Cobreloa. However, Alexis needed only a season of youth preparing to enter a senior level, so he debuted in the main team before his 18th birthday. With 12 goals in 47 games, Sanchez was signed by Italian Udinese but stayed for two years in South America. Thus, the attacker went on loan to a Chilean popular club Colo-Colo and the next year to Argentina River Plate, scoring nine goals in 55 games.

While the latter numbers don’t sound impressive, Sanchez’s career in Europe went much better. In three seasons at Udinese, Alexis played 95 games in Serie A only and scored 20 goals from the position of a winger. The most productive was his last season when the Wonder Child scored 12 in 31 games and entered the list of the most promising young players in the world. It forced Barcelona to pay almost 38 million euros for his transfer in 2011.

The Chilean hot character and a lot of passion, Sanchez was praised by Guardiola, who looked for a flexible attacker that could be effective in pressing opponents. However, this passion and intensity brought numerous small injuries for Alexis, so the guy could not play at his maximum for a long time. Still, the period in Catalonia was rather productive for the Chilean, who scored 39 goals in 88 La Liga games only and won plenty of Spanish titles. The arrival of Neymar in 2013 didn’t drop Sanchez out of the main squad, but Alexis felt he was the third option in the attack and far from the status of frontman. So, with his most productive season of 2013-14 (19 goals in 34), the Wonder Child made another wonder and joined Arsenal from London for 35 million euros.

There, the Chilean fastly became the main star of the team and enjoyed his status much more. Also, the Gunners were ready to pay him more than he received in Barca. So, in three and half years, Alexis played 122 games in the Premier League only and scored crucial 60 goals. An exception was his last full season in Arsenal, where he played all 38 league games in the EPL and scored 24 goals.

In winter 2018, Alexis became part of the interchanging deal between Arsenal and Manchester United. Thus, the Chilean moved to Old Trafford, while Mkhitaryan changed his Red Devils’ jersey into Gunner’s one. However, that was a disappointing period for Sanchez in terms of football – he scored only three goals in 32 games while having an incredible salary of 350 pounds per week or about 22 million dollars per year. Of course, it was a disappointing decision for the Red Devils, who sent him on loan to Inter in 2019 and were paying part of his salary to keep the atmosphere in the club balanced.

In Italy, Alexis showed signs of his football revival and even scored four goals in a season 2019-20, so the bosses of Nerazzurri decided to sign him on a free transfer (for United, that was a good deal too), while the Chilean agreed on receiving about 8 million dollars annually as a salary. At the moment, Sanchez still wears a Blue and Black jersey and has 103 caps with 19 goals, being mostly used as a substitute for Lautaro Martinez. Being at the age of 33, Alexis looks still passionate enough but cannot show the stable top performance he made a decade ago. So, he will unlikely seriously improve his net worth, which is about $50 million.

Its playstyle of Alexis isn’t super unique. With a height of 1.68 metres, he has good speed and dribbling. Sanches is also good at supporting his partners and can assist them as well. He has great shooting ability from both legs and even outside of the box. One of his main strengths is the ability to find and use free space on the pitch, while Alexis is also good in limited spaces due to his dribbling too.