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Alexis Sánchez

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Alexis Sánchez
Sánchez playing at Colo-Colo
Personal information
Full name Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez
Date of birth (1988-12-19) 19 December 1988 (age 35)
Place of birth Tocopilla, Chile
Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
Barcelona
Number 9
Youth career
2003–2004 Cobreloa
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2005–2006 Cobreloa 42 (12)
2006–2011 Udinese 95 (20)
2006–2007Colo-Colo (loan) 32 (3)
2007–2008River Plate (loan) 23 (4)
2011– FC Barcelona 0 (0)
International career
2007 Chile U20 12 (3)
2006– Chile 40 (14)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 13:55, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 13:55, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (Spanish pronunciation: Spanish pronunciation: [a'leksis 'sanĉeθ]; born 19 December 1988), is a Chilean footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Barcelona and for the Chilean national team.

Sánchez began his career as a youth player for Cobreloa in 2003, aged 15, for then be promoted to the first adult team, two years later. His precocious talent caught the attention of Udinese, team of the Italian Serie A, and signed the 17-year-old for US$3 million in May 2006, but was immediately loaned out to Colo-Colo, and then River Plate where he was able to mature in less physically demanding confines than Italian first division.

After of fully consecrated at South America, being champion of the Argentina and Chilean league, in June 2008, he joined Udinese. Sánchez made a steady progress in his first two seasons at Udinese, but in the 2010-11 season he it strengthens in the team of Friuli, having between his achievements be voted player of the season in Italy, being the first Chilean player in receive this honour. On 27 February 2011, Sánchez scored four of seven goals as his team 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 the Italian Serie A, thus beating the records set by his historic countrymen Marcelo Salas and Ivan Zamorano.

Alexis made his international debut for his national team against Sweden in 2006 and scored his first goal against Switzerland in a 2–1 loss, being also the first goal of the Marcelo Bielsa era. During the period of Bielsa, he was the top-scorer of Chile with 14 goals surpassing to Humberto Suazo with 11 goals.

Early life

Born in Tocopilla, to a family of fishermen, Alexis quickly learned that his life would not be easy. His biological father abandoned Alexis and his family to go work in a mine, leaving Alexis to help his family out financially from an early age.

Acording to his relatives and his closest friends, Alexis was an extroverted boy at school. Alexis washed cars in a graveyard to earn some money, but clearly the dream of Alexis was be a footballer. His fanaticism for football was shared with all his family, especially with José Delaigue who was married to his aunt. Being a formal professional footballer at Barcelona and Universidad de Chile, Delaigue saw great potential in the young Alexis.[1]

When he has 15, while Alexis played football with his friends in the neighborhood, was discovered by the mayor of Tocopilla, who was impressed by his good game, and gave him his first football shoes, on compensation for his football skills. Including, playing for Tocopilla in a regional tournament, Sánchez noted scoring eight goals in a single match.

Club career

File:Sanchez.JPG
Sánchez playing at Cobreloa

Early career

Alexis joined Cobreloa in 2004 and eventually made his first-team debut one year later at the age of 16 on 12 February 2005 in a 5–4 win against Deportes Temuco. In his second professional game, he set a Copa Libertadores record by becoming the youngest player to debut in the South American Club Championship. In the next season, Sánchez concentrated on his goal scoring for the Torneo Apertura 2006, netting six goals in 12 appearances. On 21 July, Cobreloa sold Sánchez to the Italian side Udinese for $3 million.

In July 2006, he was loaned to one of Chile's biggest teams, Colo-Colo on a season-long deal. His loan was due to a maturation project that Udinese implemented with youth players. After a notable season in the Cacique, and winning two league titles, it was assumed that Sánchez would return to Italy. He was loaned out again, however, this time to Argentina's River Plate.

Early seasons at Italy

After a successful season in Argentina, in July 2008, Sánchez left South America to officially join Udinese, where he would suit 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.[2] On 14 September, he played his first game in Serie A in a 1–0 loss with Juventus and four days later, he made his Europe 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. He kicked the ball in the goal with his foot and smiled when he did it. 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.

In the following season, Sánchez played an important role for Udinese at Coppa Italia 2009–10, being a key player in the team that eliminated AC Milan, assisting Gökhan Inler for the winning goal.[3] 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 was 2–1 in favor of Roma.[4] By the end of this year, Sánchez scored a total of five goals (four at the end of tournament) in 32 appearances.

Udinese

Along with his compatriot Mauricio Isla, playing for Udinese

After participating for Chile in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Sánchez began to live an intense process of adaptation that consecrated him in Udinese with very good performances for the club, because of this, Sánchez has also attracted the interest from clubs such as Manchester United,[5] Zenit St. Petersburg, Inter Milan,[6] Manchester City,[7] Juventus,[8] Barcelona,[9] Real Madrid and Chelsea,[10] with Barcelona even going so far as to claim that they had signed a pre-contract agreement with the player's agent, but Udinese's dirigents declared to Sánchez untransferable until June 2011.

On 27 February 2011, Sánchez scored four of seven goals as his team 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 the Italian Serie A,[11] thus beating the records set by his historic countrymen Marcelo Salas and Ivan Zamorano.

During his successful season at Udinese Calcio, Sánchez and Italian striker Antonio Di Natale became one of the best scoring duos in Serie A tallying 39 goals between then, two goals short of the Del PieroTrezeguet duo that completed 41 goals in the 2007–08 season. In recognition of his achievements he has been named the world's most promising youngster of the 2011 season.[12]

International career

Alexis made his international debut for his national team against New Zealand on 27 April 2006. He was called up by the coach José Sulantay for play with his country in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup celebrated in Canada, achieving an historic performance, finishing in third place of the tournament.

After his participation in the youth championship, he scored his first goal in the Marcelo Bielsa era in a 2–1 loss against Switzerland on 7 September 2007. Due to the three-months injury that he suffered playing for River Plate, Sánchez missed the first four games of the FIFA World Cup qualification. Fully recovered now, he led to Chile to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, becoming the team's star player. His best game during the qualifiers was in a 4–0 win over Bolivia, scoring two goals of the victory. However, in the maximum global competition, he had a regular performance, but Alexis continued to be the favorite of the fans.

Prior to the 2011 Copa América, Sánchez has scored 2 goals in 4 games, those goals were scored against Uruguay and Estonia. On 29 June 2011, he was selected in the 23-man squad that will represent to Chile in the Copa América celebrated in Argentina.

International goals

Career statistics

Club

Club Season League Cup Continental Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Cobreloa 2005 35 3 3 0 38 3
2006 12 9 12 9
Total 47 12 3 0 50 12
Colo-Colo 2006 18 4 9 1 27 5
2007 14 1 7 3 21 4
Total 32 3 16 4 48 7
River Plate 2007–08 23 4 8 0 31 4
Total 23 4 8 0 31 4
Udinese 2008–09 32 3 2 0 9 0 43 3
2009–10 32 5 4 1 36 6
2010–11 31 12 2 0 33 12
Total 95 20 8 1 9 0 112 21
Career total 197 39 8 1 36 4 241 44

Statistics accurate as of match played 22 May 2011[14][15][16]

National team

[13] Template:Football player national team statistics |- |2006||5||0 |- |2007||4||1 |- |2008||9||2 |- |2009||9||5 |- |2010||7||4 |- |2011||6||2 |- !Total||40||14 |}

Honours

Club

Colo-Colo
River Plate

International

Individual

Personal life

The adoptive father of Alexis, José Delaigue, died of a heart attack in June 2011 at age 75 when Sánchez was 21. On 19 June of that year, in Chile's 4-0 win over Estonia, on his team's last goal that Alexis scored he removed his jersey during his celebration to reveal a photo on his undershirt of his adoptive father, in tribute of the late man.

References

  1. ^ "La historia de Alexis: de lavador de autos a estrella del Barcelona" (in Spanish). Terra.cl. 21 July 2011.
  2. ^ "Gran debut de Alexis Sánchez en Udinese". Adn mundo.cl. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
  3. ^ "Gokhan Inler Sends The Rossoneri Packing From Coppa Italia". Goal.com. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
  4. ^ "Alexis Sánchez anotó en eliminación de Udinese ante la Roma". Triunfo.cl. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
  5. ^ "Manchester United target Alexis Sanchez can be as good as Cristiano Ronaldo - agent". Goal.com. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  6. ^ "Inter preparing offer for Udinese star & Manchester United target Alexis Sanchez - report". Goal.com. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  7. ^ "Manchester City Target Aston Villa's Ashley Young And Udinese's Alexis Sanchez Following Adam Johnson Injury - Report". Goal.com. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  8. ^ "Juventus Join Race For Udinese Ace Alexis Sanchez - Report". Goal.com. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  9. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Barcelona Preparing To Hijack Inter Bid For Alexis Sanchez As Blaugrana Scout Watches Genoa-Udinese". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  10. ^ "Chelsea in £25m hunt for Udinese's Alexis Sanchez". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  11. ^ "Alexis Sanchez's Quart-Trick Demolished Palermo". Serieaticketsonline.com. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  12. ^ "Udinese's Alexis Sanchez voted the world's most promising youngster in Fifa poll". Goal.com. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  13. ^ a b "Sánchez national stats". National Football Teams. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  14. ^ Sánchez Chile career stats
  15. ^ "Alexis Sánchez stats". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  16. ^ "Sánchez career stats". Transfermarkt. Retrieved 13 July 2011.

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