Football Stars: Alexis Sanchez

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Sánchez


Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (Spanish pronunciation: [a'leksis 'sanĉeθ]; born 19 December 1988) is a Chilean footballer who plays as a right winger or striker for Italian Serie A club Udinese and also for the Chilean national team. He will move to Barcelona in a transfer worth €36 million, which will make Alexis the most expensive player in the chilean football history.[3] His contract with Barça is also expected to make him the highest-paid player in Chile.
Alexis began his career as a youth player for Cobreloa, where he played as professional for two years. His precocious talent caught the attention of the italian side Udinese and signed the 16-year-old for US$3 million in 2006.[4] However, he was immediately loaned out to Colo-Colo, and then River Plate where he was able to mature in less physically demanding confines than Serie A. In 2008, he officialy joined to Udinese, for finally three years later devoting in the Fruili team. Sánchez made a steady progress in his first two seasons at Udinese, but in the 2010-11 season he it strengthens 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. He also was the first chilean in score four goals in a single match, surpassing stars of his country like Iván Zamorano and Marcelo Salas.
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 13 goals over Humberto Suazo with 11.

Club career

Early career
Sánchez 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.


Udinese


Early seasons


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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] By the end of this year, Sánchez scored a total of five goals (four at the end of tournament) in 32 appearances.



2010–11 season
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 he attracted the interest from clubs such as Manchester United,[8] Zenit St. Petersburg, Inter Milan,[9] Manchester City,[10] Juventus,[11] Barcelona,[12] Real Madrid and Chelsea,[13] 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 the seven goals that his team defeated to Palermo, playing only the first 52 minutes of the game. This event meant him broke the record of goals scored by a chilean player (in a single match) at the Italian Serie A,[14] thus overcoming to historic players of his country as Marcelo Salas and Ivan Zamorano.
During his succesfull season at Calcio, between the achievements of Sánchez in his career, the player and the italian striker Antonio Di Natale became in one of the best scoring duos in Serie A with 39 goals, two goals under of the Del Piero–Trezeguet, duo that completed 41 goals in the 2007–08 season. Other of his most important achievements was be named the world's most promising youngster of the 2011 season.[15]




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 qualfiers 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.