CUIABA, Brazil (AP) – In the shadow of Lionel Messi at Barcelona, Alexis Sanchez is undoubtedly the main man for Chile as the fleet-footed forward attempts to cap the most prolific season of his career by playing a starring role at the World Cup.
Sanchez is the face of Chilean football, adorning posters, advertisements and turning up in TV commercials. In one – made for Gillette around two years back – he appears as a boxer, Formula One driver, weightlifter and a high-platform diver, a champion in all his different guises.
And it’s fitting, really. To the adoring Chilean public, there’s little Sanchez cannot do.
On the pitch, it was his poise in front of goal that was often perceived to be his chief deficiency. But he rectified that this season, scoring 21 times for Barcelona from the right wing including two goal-of-the-season contenders.
Sanchez is turning into the complete package, just in time to grace the sport’s biggest stage in Brazil.
“You use those sorts of guys, playing (console game) FIFA, and you see them in footballing headlines all over the word, so it is a little bit daunting,” said Australia goalkeeper Mat Ryan, who will come up against Sanchez in Chile’s opening Group B game in Cuiaba today.
“I’ll just have to do my best to look at the ball and not at the player to see who it is.”
The 25-year-old Sanchez is the first name on the team sheet for Chile but is not held quite in such high regard at Barcelona.
He has never been a regular in his three years at Camp Nou following his move from Italian side Udinese. Even with his strike rate soaring this season, improving on league totals of 11 and eight goals in his first two years with the team, he has often been dropped to the bench for the big games.
Cesc Fabregas started ahead of him in Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final defeat to Atletico Madrid and also in the loss to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. There is even talk of Sanchez leaving the club in the offseason as new coach Luis Enrique overhauls the squad.
Barcelona’s loss would be another club’s gain, though.
For Sanchez is just starting to fulfil his potential on the international stage. Playing in a more central position in attack alongside Eduardo Vargas may have helped improve his finishing – just ask England, whose defence Sanchez tore apart in a sublime two-goal display in a friendly at Wembley Stadium in November.
“Alexis is different,” Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli said through a translator yesterday. “He can go in behind (the defence), and then he can of course go deeper and take advantage of goal-scoring opportunities.
“We need this type of player who is very nimble and is quick to break through strong defences.”
Match time: 6 p.m.
