Alexis SánchezFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Sánchez and the second or maternal family name is Sánchez.

Alexis Sánchez

Sánchez in 2011

Personal information

Full name Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez[1]

Date of birth 19 December 1988 (age 25)[1][2]

Place of birth Tocopilla, Chile[3][2]

Height 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)[4]

Playing position Forward / Winger

Club information

Current team Arsenal

Number 17

Youth career

2004–2005 Cobreloa

Senior career*

Years Team Apps† (Gls)†

2005–2006 Cobreloa 47 (9)

2006–2011 Udinese 95 (20)

2006–2007 → Colo-Colo (loan) 32 (5)

2007–2008 → River Plate (loan) 23 (4)

2011–2014 Barcelona 88 (39)

2014– Arsenal 0 (0)

National team‡

2007 Chile U20 12 (2)

2006– Chile 71 (24)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league

only and correct as of 17 May 2014.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 28 June 2014

Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈleksis ˈsantʃes]; born 19 December 1988) is a Chilean footballerwho plays for Arsenal in the Premier League and the Chilean national team as a forward, most commonly in the right wing position.

After his debut season of first-team football with Cobreloa, Sánchez was signed by Italy's Udinese Calcio in 2006. After successful loans at Colo-Colo and River Plate, he began playing in Serie A. In 2011, he was signed by Barcelona for £25 million, becoming the most expensive transfer in Chilean football history.[5] Sánchez signed for Arsenal in July 2014 for a fee reported to be around £30–35 million, becoming the second-most expensive signing in the club's history after Mesut Özil, and also the club's first ever Chilean player.

He has been a full international for Chile since 2006, playing predominantly as the main striker. He earned over 70 caps and played in two FIFA World Cups (2010 and 2014) and the 2011 Copa América.

Contents

  [hide] 

1 Club careero 1.1 Early life and career

1.1.1 Loan spellso 1.2 Udineseo 1.3 Barcelonao 1.4 Arsenal

2 International career 3 Career statistics

o 3.1 Clubo 3.2 International

3.2.1 International goals 4 Honours

o 4.1 Clubo 4.2 Internationalo 4.3 Individual

5 References 6 External links

Club careerEarly life and career

After an impressive season, on 21 April 2006, Sánchez caught the attention of Udinese who signed him for a £1.7 million fee.[6]However, Udinese began a maturation project with Alexis and loaned him to Chilean giants Colo-Colo in a season-long deal.[7]

Loan spells

Sánchez playing for Colo-Colo.

Sánchez's first game for Colo-Colo was on 23 June 2006 in a 1–1 draw with Antofagasta. His first goal came during aSuperclásico against Universidad de Chile in a 4–2 win played at Estadio Monumental on 29 October.[8] His strong performances allowed him break into the team's starting lineup after successfully challenging Mario Cáceres for the position of striker and began partnering Humberto Suazo in attack. On 1 November, he scored his first brace at Pedreros in a 4–4 draw with Deportes La Serena.[9]

Sánchez won his first professional title in Colo-Colo. He scored his first goal in an international contest in the 7–2 thrashing of LD Alajuelense for the Copa Sudamericana [10]  (tournament that Colo-Colo failed to win after being defeated by Pachuca at Estadio Nacional).[11]

After the FIFA U-20 World Cup, Sánchez was loaned to River Plate in 2007, winning the league title one year later.

Udinese

After a successful season in Argentina, Sánchez left South America in July 2008 to join Udinese, where he would meet 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.[12] 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 European debut againstBorussia 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. 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.[citation needed]

The next season, Sánchez played an important role for Udinese in Coppa Italia 2009–10, being a key player in the team that eliminatedMilan, assisting Gökhan Inler for the winning goal.[13] 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, as the aggregate score was 2–1 in favor of Roma.[14] By the end of this year, Sánchez scored a total of five goals (four at the end of tournament) in 32 appearances.

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,[15] thus beating the records set by his historic countrymen Marcelo Salas and Iván Zamorano.

During his successful season at Udinese, Sánchez and Italian striker Antonio Di Natale became one of the best scoring duos in Serie A. They tallied 39 goals between them, two goals short of the Del Piero–Trezeguet duo that completed 41 goals in the 2007–08 season. In recognition of his achievements he was named the world's most promising youngster of the 2011 season, by the users of FIFA.com, where users had to choose between Sánchez, Gareth Bale, Javier Pastore, Ganso and Neymar in a poll.[16] Sánchez ranked 56th in the May 2011 edition of Castrol Performance Index and 24th among the forwards.