Football Player's Biography 7: Alexis Sánchez

Full name	Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez^[1]
Date of birth	December 19, 1988 (1988-12-19) (age 22)
Place of birth	Tocopilla, Chile
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)^[2]
Playing position	Winger / Forward

Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (born 19 December 1988 in Tocopilla, Antofagasta Region) is a Chilean footballer who plays for Serie A club Udinese. He is commonly used as a striker, but can also operate as an attacking midfielder or a right winger.
Known for his pace and technical ability, Sánchez is nicknamed El Niño Maravilla.^[3] He was named by World Football as one of the 50 most exciting teenagers in the world game in 2007.^[4]
So far, he has represented Chile during the 2007 U-20 World Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Early life

Born and raised in Tocopilla, Antofagasta Region, Alexis is one of four sons of Martina Sánchez.Being the youngest brothers out of Jean Paul (22), Diego (19) and Dean (15) At the age of fifteen he played for Club Arauco, his local club. The mayor of Tocopilla at this time, Alexander Kurtovic, gave him his first pair of football boots.
He excelled as a top-scorer at a regional level and went on to represent Tal Tal city, where he again showed his eye for goal: on one occasion scoring eight goals in a single game.

Club Career

Cobreloa

During 2004, Alexis was part of the Cobreloa Football Academy, Tocopilla subsidiary. In February of that year, during a match against the subsidiary of Calama (U-17 level), a coach of the main Cobreloa squad noticed his talent.
Sánchez was chosen for the Chile national under-18 football team by coach and former footballer Jorge Aravena, to play in the South American Under-17 Championship in Paraguay in 2004. On that occasion, Chile were able to reach the quarter final stage of the competition.
Shortly after the tournament, back in Cobreloa, the coach Nelson Acosta promoted Sánchez to the first team. On 12 February 2005, Sánchez made his Cobreloa debut against Deportes Temuco featuring in a 5-4 win during the first week of Torneo Apertura 2005 at Estadio Municipal de Calama. On 23 May 2005, Sánchez made his first Copa Libertadores appearance, coming off the bench in the 51st minute against Once Caldas, who at the time, were the reigning champions from Copa Libertadores 2004.
During Torneo Apertura 2006, he was one of top-scorers at Cobreloa with six goals in twelve games. On 21 April 2006, the Italian Serie A club Udinese Calcio paid US$3,000,000 for Sánchez, who was only 17 years old at the time.^[5] However, Sánchez did not move directly to Italy. Udinese, allowed Sánchez to remain in South America on various loan agreements from the club, so that he was able to develop further as a player both physically and mentally, before joining the main Udinese squad.

Colo-Colo

Shortly after the recent Chilean champions of this time, Colo-Colo agreed with Udinese the loan of Alexis for one season until June 2007.
Sánchez was officially presented in Colo-Colo on 11 July 2006.^[6] He made his Colo-Colo debut on 23 June 2006 in a 1–1 draw with Deportes Antofagasta.^[7] He became a key player in Colo-Colo and he helped to the team to win the Torneo de Clausura of 2006 and also in the Copa Sudamericana runner-up, finishing with 5 goals in 28 matches in the season.
Into the 2007 season, Sánchez maintained his good performance, scoring 4 goals in 21 matches in total for the season. Alexis also scored a hat-trick for Copa Libertadores 2007 against the venezolan club Caracas FC, however Colo-Colo finshed first in this group qualfying to the second stage against Club América of Mexico. However Colo-Colo was eliminated in a 4–2 global result and failed to pass to the quarterfinals. Whilst in the local tournement, Sánchez proclaimed champion with Colo-Colo for second time in his career. In June 2007, he finished his loan with Colo-Colo, and he return to Udinese.

River Plate

During the winter of 2007, Sánchez was loaned to a South American club, River Plate of Primera División Argentina, in a loan agreed until June 2008.
Sánchez made his debut for River Plate on 26 August 2007 in the Torneo de Apertura, coming off the bench for Mauro Rosales in the 61st minute in a 1–0 loss to San Martín de San Juan.^[8] On 23 August, he scored his first River Plate goal at Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti in a 4–2 win to Estudiantes de La Plata in the 82nd minute. After the goal scored, Sánchez was acclaimed for the fans of River Plate calling it Shileno, comparing to Sánchez with a Chilean football star and former player of River Plate, Marcelo Salas.^[9] In the 3–1 River's victory over Lanús, Sánchez played his first game as titular and scoring his second goal for River in the 47th minute.^[10] In the next game, Sánchez was gravely injured by Juan Carlos Blengio against Tigre on 23 September.^[11] However he again played against Banfield for the last week in a 2–0 loss, finally Sánchez finished with six games and two goals in the tournement.
During February 2008, River played a friendly tournament called Copa Revancha against River's archirival Boca Juniors, Sánchez dribbled past all five players of the defence to be tackled in the penalty box which resulted in a penalty awarded to River Plate, this penalty was scored by Ariel Ortega in the 73rd minute, and the game finished in a 3–2 River's victory.^[12]
Sánchez played throughout the season under the guidance of the River Plate coach Diego Simeone. In the ninth week, Sánchez scored his first goal of Torneo Apertura against Vélez Sársfield in the 9th minute. He also scored the victory goal of River against Colón de Santa Fe in the 77th minute. Shortly After he was proclaimed champion with River Plate of the Argentine football in the Torneo de Apertura, after a game won 2–1 against Olimpo for the 18th week.^[13]
During the Winter transfer window, Sánchez finished his loan with River and returned to Udinese Calcio permanently.

Udinese Calcio

In 2008, Sánchez joined to Udinese, after of four years out of the club on loan. He currently is partner of his compatriot Mauricio Isla, he had a good relationship with the player, and was partner for a short time of his other compatriot Nicolás Corvetto due to the player only remained for six months in the club.
He made his Udinese debut against Bassano Virtus 55 S.T. in a 3-0 win of Udinese on 27 July 2008, in this match he had a good debut with Udinese, including being named the player of the match.^[14] His Serie A debut was on 14 September 2008 in a 1–0 loss with Juventus. He became a key player in Udinese, being several times the player of the match, and scoring a clinical last minute winner against Bologna. He has received many comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo, because of their good play and skills in the season. In the first season with Udinese he finished with only 3 goals in 32 matches. Alexis also played the UEFA Cup 2008-09, he played all games with the team, Udinese finished first in the Group with 9 points over Tottenham Hotspur F.C. with 7 points, in the round of 32 Udinese eliminate to the polish club Lech Poznań and also eliminate to the defending champions of the last UEFA Cup Zenit St. Petersburg in Round of 16, but Udinese was eliminated by the German club Werder Bremen in the quarterfinals.
In Coppa Italia 2009–10, Sánchez played a important role in Udinese, giving a goal pass to the Swiss player Gökhan Inler in a 1–0 win against AC Milan, eliminating to Milan in the quarterfinals, and also naming to Alexis as the player of the match.^[15] Against AS Roma in the first leg of semifinals, Udinese loss in a 2–0 result, but in the second leg Udinese won 1–0 with a goal of Sánchez in the 81' minute, but Udinese was eliminated of the tournament.^[16] Sánchez newly has a regular season in the Serie A, due to his inguinal hernia injury and also he scored five goals in 32 matches.
On 6 July 2010, Sánchez received a offer from the Turkish club Galatasaray S.K. in a fee transfer of 20.000.000 euros.^[17] This offer of transfer, comes after the good performance of Sanchez in the 2010 World Cup. However, the president of Udinese Giampaolo Pozzo said that Sánchez not be transferred to Galatasaray, because the Chilean was devoted to Udinese.
In Serie A 2010-11, he played a notable match against one of Italian giants Internazionale Milano F.C. in a 2–1 loss for the second week of Serie at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium. On 24 October 2010, he was selected as the player of the match against Palermo for the eight week, and in the next week Sánchez newly selected as the player of the match, now against AS Bari, due to he scored a long distance goal in the 16' minute and after he give a goal pass to his compatriot Mauricio Isla in the 60' minute. During 24 November 2010, Sánchez appeared in the 2–1 dramatically win for Coppa Italia 2010–11 fourth round against US Lecce, coming off the bench in the 64th minute, finally the goal was scored by Antonio Floro Flores in the 119th minute, qualifying to the fourth round against Sampdoria. On 19 December 2010, he scored a head goal against S.S. Lazio, but unfortunately Udinese loss for 3–2.^[18]
On 6 January 2011, Sánchez scored a goal against Chievo Verona in the 14th minute, being the man of the match in a 2–0 Udinese victory. Three days later, for the Serie A, he was one of key players of Udinese, scoring a head goal in the 53th minute against AC Milan, finally the match ended 4–4. He followed this up with 4 goals against Palermo in a storming 0-7 away win, where he only played 52 minutes, in which fellow striker Antonio Di Natale grabbed a hat-trick.^[19]
Reports are circulating that Liverpool have made a huge offer for Udinese flyer Alexis Sanchez. Fulham v Liverpool tickets Braga v Liverpool live streaming The Italian club chairman Franco Soldati told Sky Italia that an early official bid has come in, with many believing that it originated from Anfield, with Kenny Dalglish very keen to strengthen his team on the flanks. He would have little doubt that Sanchez could strike up an excellent rapport with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. "Sanchez is of interest to both English and Italian teams. A team has already offered a figure close to 30-35 million euros [for Sanchez] but I cannot say where it came from," Udinese chairman Franco Soldati told Sky Italia. Udinese Sporting Director Fabrizio Larini added fuel to the fire on Calciomercato: A evaluation of €25 million for Sanchez? Looking at what has been paid for [Luis] Suarez, [Fernando] Torres and David Luiz in England, I think Sanchez will also be sold for more than €25 million." Alexis Sanchez has proven himself an incredible asset to Udinese for the past few seasons, and his four goal haul against Palermo just a few weeks ago showed him at his best. The Chile international is just 22 years of age and has all the potential to become one of the best players in the world. Could he do it at Liverpool?

International career

Sánchez made his first appearance for national team in a 1–0 win against New Zealand on 27 April 2006, coming off the bench in the 58th minute, replacing to the forward Juan Gonzalo Lorca.^[20] Prior to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Chile made a exhibition tour to Europe, playing against Ireland, Côte d'Ivoire and Sweden. Against Sweden, Sánchez played a notable game, he impressively dribbled with a rabona and a bicycle to Mikael Nilsson, some media calificated this that he broke the waist to Mikael Nilsson, this skill attracted the attention of many clubs.
He represented his national team at 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada, he played four games and scored one goal against DR Congo in the 49th minute in the 3–0 Chile's victory. On 19 July 2007, Sánchez coming off the bench in the 76th minute in the 3–0 loss against Argentina for the semifinals. After of the game, Sánchez was involucarted a scandal protagonized with the national team with the Canadian police. Finally, his team finished in the third place, after a win 1–0 to Austria.
He scored his first international goal against Switzerland on 7 September 2007, under the managerial of the Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa. He missed the first four games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, because of a injury provocated for the Argentine defender Juan Carlos Blengio, leaving Sánchez two months injured. However, he fully recovered of his injury and he made his debut for the World Cup qualification against Bolivia on 15 June 2008. During 2009 qualifying round, Sánchez played a notable game against Bolivia, scoring two goals for his team.^[21] Finally he scored a total of 3 goals in 12 games for the qualfiyings. Chile finally qualified to the World Cup.
In the FIFA World Cup 2010, Sánchez play the opening game of the Group H against Honduras in a 1–0 Chile's victory. In the next game of the group, Sánchez scored a goal against Switzerland, but the goal was annulled, because the ball was deviate in Chilean player in offside, finally Chile won 1–0. On 25 June 2010, Sánchez played the Chile loss 2–1 against Spain, in this game Sánchez gave a goal assistance to Rodrigo Millar in the 47th minute. Chile finally qualified to the Round of 16 against Brazil, but Chile was eliminated in a 3–0 loss.

Style of play

Sánchez's style of play has been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo. With dribbling ability, exceptional ball control, quick pace and also good crossing, it is easy to see why. Also, like Ronaldo, Sánchez often plays as a Winger or Striker.
With such revered technical abilities, Sánchez has been declared by Udinese as 'untransferable' for the moment.^[23] Current clubs who reportedly are interested in Sánchez include: Liverpool F.C., Manchester United F.C., Internazionale Milano F.C., Chelsea F.C. and Galatasaray S.K.. However, securing Sánchez's services will reportedly cost any potential suitor around US$36,000,000.