Will the Real Alexis Sanchez ever stand up? Maybe, maybe not
He lit up England, Spain, Chile, Brazil, South Africa and even Argentina at his very best, smiling while doing it. But now, in the dearth of his career with the world’s back on him at a new Inter, is this the last we see of El Niño Maravilla or will Alexis Sanchez produce yet another renaissance?
He started as nothing more than a child happy to do nothing but play football all day long in a Tocopilla, a dry and dusty town north of Chile. Literally called the Devils’ Corner, life is only supposed to go one way and one way only for Tocopilla. For them, the coal mine may not have been life and death, but few things came as close. A poverty-stricken life in a town surrounded by mountains, adding to the fear of being trapped in that life, and yet Sanchez survived.
Simply because life was never going to be the same for a young Alexis Sanchez, it was never going to be the same from the very moment he kicked a ball. Because to anyone watching even as a young kid, to an over-worked mother and a father he had never known, Sanchez was born to play football. His warrior-like attitude and his selfishness to never let go of the ball won the hearts of many and earned him his lifeline. Because while football was an escape for the people living in and around Tocopilla, for Sanchez it was literally his escape to another life and boy did it work!
It was his chance to become rich, his chance to show just what he could do when given the chance and it gave him a chance to roam the world, win the hearts of everybody who lived. It never changed not till he reached Manchester United, but that’s a story for later. Because while Sanchez was a rather wonderfully gifted footballer, it’s his attitude that coaches and managers talked about. It’s why Arsenal brought him in from Barcelona, not because he was exactly what they needed to push them forward, but because of his attitude to never give up.
Because even once he made it to Barcelona, Alexis at his very heart was a child on a football field. A child with the work-ethic of a coal-miner, a past that never seemed to let go of its clutch on him, and it worked. He may have never been great at it in the innate sense of the word, but he was hard-working and explosive when at his best. He seemed to do everything more than everyone else and that worked for him. Not just for Chile but at Udinese, Barcelona and of course the best of them all Arsenal. It was a mystifying spell and we couldn’t take our eyes off it, or we’d miss something explosive.
To put it simply, he made football fun to watch and as someone who knew the true meaning of being a lost cause, nothing seemed to faze him, which made him even more likeable. Managers loved him not because of his never-ending desire to run, but because in a world full of variables, Sanchez was the one constant. The one-man (yes, even at Barcelona) that always put in a 7 or an 8/10 performance, unless there was some underlying issue. It separated him from the others and it gave him that added edge to his game. Then there was the fact that Sanchez was that South-American footballer.
Not just your usual flair full, tricky and forever smiling footballer, but that one who combined everything needed in a world-class attacker with that relentless industry that brought him closer to the very men he claimed to be. Maybe in hindsight that was just what brought everything crashing down. It happened the first time at Barcelona (which led to his move to England) and then again the second time at Arsenal. He had the right to do that in the latter situation because he was at the point of time arguably one of the best players in England alongside Eden Hazard and maybe even Sergio Aguero.
But it still proved to hurt him yet again before it truly damaged his soul as he looked to get back what he lost, by trying to make up for it via trophies and Championships. Jose Mourinho sold him the moon and the sky, but reality proved to be a lot different. Instead, Sanchez was grounded. No longer allowed the freedom and the carefree attitude that Arsene Wenger had in his superstar, allowing him to do what he wanted. Instead, some say that as Mourinho stifled him and grounded him, the child within him that once considered football to be an escape was beaten out by a (rumoured) 500,000 check every week without fail.
It’s why many suggest, that despite his move to Inter Milan and a country where he once played some of the best football of his life, it may not be enough. The 2019 Copa America did for one second there, make us believe that there was still a bit of life left in that body, but eventually, his lack of superstar cockiness changed that. And yes, Sanchez was overbrimming at one point with superstar cockiness. This is a man who panenka-ed in the final penalty in a shoot-out for his country’s first international crown.
The same man bulldozed through the Premier League with effortless ease, often making a mockery of a league supposed to be the toughest and most competitive in the world. Yet this is the same man who owns the league record for losing the ball. The same man whose’ wages and not ability as a player dominated any talk about him. It’s why Sanchez who started as nothing more than a child happy to play football all day with a smile has become in Barney Ronay’s eloquently put phrase “a ghost ship of a sporting giant”. It was bound to happen, his fireball attitude would have eventually extinguished but no-one quite expected it to be like this.
Can Alexis Sanchez walk back from that?
It won’t be easy and Antonio Conte will or rather has to let him run free, but even then he may not have the speed or even the mental strength to find his way back home. If he does however Serie A beware (they already know), El Niño Maravilla will destroy you.
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