Following Arturo Vidal's withdrawal from the visiting squad, Sanchez now stands undisputed as the South American side's biggest draw. On top of that, his insistence that he would love to replicate Marcelo Salas's feat in 1998 and score against England on their own turf has helped keep him in the papers both here and abroad.
Yet above all, his name is currently buzzing around Twitter because of the denial from both his agent and the player himself that some disparaging comments about England attributed to him in a national newspaper have been entirely fabricated. He maintains that not only are they fake, but he never gave any interviews to the British media at all.
If the Barca man’s remarks about England being ‘soft’ are heavily disputed, then there is no disputing the one quote that has defined his recent history at the Camp Nou. In March 2013, in the midst of a horrific run of form with Barcelona where he managed just two league goals since the start of the season, Sanchez stopped to speak to some journalists following a poor showing for Chile against Peru in World Cup qualifying. Far from being apologetic, he was firm.
“I know what kind of player I am. I know I’m a great player. A jugadorazo.”
Jugadorazo can roughly be translated as ‘bloody great player’. That he chose to use the phrase was surprising for two reasons. Firstly, he isn’t the most outspoken of players in press conferences and it seemed out of character, and secondly, he wasn’t playing like a jugadorazo. Far from it, in fact.
He only had to say it once and it stuck. The Chilean had provided the media with the perfect stick to beat him with. Every time he missed an open goal, every time he gave away the ball, Twitter, newspapers, the radio and television stations would snidely note the jugadorazo wasn’t exactly delivering the goods. One Catalan radio station seemed to spend more time mocking his performances than commentating on the Barcelona games being played out in front of them.
The reaction was undoubtedly cruel, but also understandable. Sanchez arrived at Barcelona in 2011 for around €30m, one of the last major signings in the Pep Guardiola era. His price tag, combined with 12 goals and 11 assists for Udinese the season prior meant that expectations were high.
Things started fairly well. The Chilean seemed to adjust to Barcelona’s game quickly, most notably producing an excellent performance against Real Madrid in December, playing as a floating number nine and scoring the equaliser in one of the last Clasicos in which Barcelona really dominated their eternal rival. Yet that proved to be a brief high point. Soon, injuries killed any momentum the forward had managed to build, with his form then taking a nosedive.
Rather than improving under Barca's next manager Tito Vilanova, things got worse. The year before, the irregularity of his displays were largely excused by spectators due to his fitness concerns, but in the 2012/13 campaign, the knives were out. Failing to score a single league goal before Christmas, the Chilean appeared to be on a downward trajectory, somehow becoming less effective for his side rather than the opposite. Most presumed he would be sold at the end of the season.
Then came that quote. The jugadorazo moment and it was painful to watch as the storm that ensued suggested the only way was out. The Camp Nou crowd became audibly frustrated with him, creating a vicious circle of a miss, followed by boos, followed by dented confidence, followed by another miss. Yet for once, Barcelona acted swiftly and acted well, a true rarity these days. They threw their weight behind Sanchez, saying he wouldn’t be sold in the summer. Gradually, he began to respond. A run of four goals in five games toward the end of the season bought him some time. Was he worthy of the Barca shirt, after all?
As it turns out, he was. Since Tata Martino's arrival as manager in July, Sanchez has looked like a player reborn and it all started with confidence like with so many footballers. In his first few weeks in the job, Martino made a point of taking the forward aside and telling him to play ‘like the Alexis I know. The Alexis from River Plate, from Bielsa’s Chile’. In 2008, at only 19 years old, Sanchez had played his part in winning the Clausura with River. Under Marcelo Bielsa, meanwhile, he was the young star of the stunning Chile side that grabbed the attention of neutrals at the 2010 World Cup. Martino was evidently a man who genuinely understood him as a player, fully aware of his career trajectory; this wasn’t just hot air, and it worked.
October was Sanchez's month, both in Barcelona and in his homeland. A brace and an assist against Valladolid in La Liga, including a screamer of an equaliser, got the ball rolling. He followed that six days later by delivering the goods for Chile by scoring twice to earn a point against Colombia, then bagging the winner against Ecuador to ensure his nation qualified for the 2014 World Cup. Everything he touched turned to goals. A stark contrast to the season before.
That form continued with his club. Coming off the bench against Real Madrid in the recent El Clasico, he turned Raphael Varane inside out with his quick feet then dipped the cheekiest of shots over the head of goalkeeper Diego Lopez from distance. It proved to be the strike that separated the two sides. Not only another important goal, but another beautiful one.
A strike against Celta Vigo followed three days later, and soon after, he scored the only goal of a truly horrific local derby game against Espanyol. Sanchez wasn’t only participating in games, he was settling them regularly for the first time since joining the club.
If Martino’s alterations to Barcelona’s style have produced mixed results for some of his players, Sanchez is one of the few who have undoubtedly benefited from his methods. A newfound willingness to play on the counter-attack gives him a chance to use his pace and trademark diagonal runs to great effect, constantly getting in behind opposition back lines. He has also struck up a good understanding with Neymar in a relatively short period of time. Yet it would all mean nothing if he wasn’t putting the ball in the net, and that can’t be solely attributed to his manager. Rather, the credit has to go to the player himself, for continuing to work hard on improving that area, and believing he could be a forward worthy of playing for Barcelona, even when no one else did.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed in the Catalan media, either. Now, when they call Alexis a jugadorazo, it is done with a sense of resignation, journalists now admitting the Chilean may actually have been right after all. England and their supporters will get a chance to learn just how dangerous he can be first hand on Friday night. Powerful, quick, skillful and now confident, it would be unwise to bet against him emulating Salas. He is, it turns out, a bloody great player.
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