CAREER

2012/13 FC Barcelona
2011/12 FC Barcelona
2010/11 Udinese
2009/10 Udinese
2008/09 Udinese
2007/08 River Plate
2007 Colo Colo
2006 Cobreloa/Colo Colo
2005 Cobreloa

Club career

Udinese

Loan spells

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.

Return to Udinese

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. 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 against Borussia Dortmund. On 19 October 2008, Sánchez scored his first league goal againstLecce. 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. On January 5, 2006 Alexis was granted FIFA. Player of the year award for his accomplishments in this year.

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 Milan, assisting Gökhan Inler for the winning goal. 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. By the end of this year, Sánchez scored a total of five goals (four at the end of tournament) in 32 appearances.

Along with his compatriot Mauricio Isla, playing for Udinese Calcio

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

During his successful season at Udinese Calcio, Sánchez and Italian striker Antonio Di Natale became one of the best scoring duos in Serie A tallying 39 goals between then, 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^] Sánchez ranked 56th in the May 2011 edition of Castrol Performance Index and 24th among the forwards.

Barcelona

On 20 July 2011, FC Barcelona confirmed they had agreed a €26 million fee (plus €11m in certain bonuses) with Udinese for the transfer of Sánchez, thus becoming the first Chilean to ever play for the club. "Sánchez is very young," said manager Pep Guardiola. "He can play in all three attacking positions, he shows intense defensive skills, he's direct and from what I've been told, he's a very nice kid." The transfer was finalised five days later when he passed a medical and signed a five-year contract. "I want to learn from players like Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández—and I want to help the club win more titles," said Sánchez.

His debut season for Barcelona was mired with short-term injuries. Sanchez made his debut on 14 August 2011 against arch rivals Real Madrid in the 2012Supercopa de España first leg away match, and had a thigh injury after a challenge by Marcelo. Barcelona won the tie 5–4 on aggregate. He made his return two weeks later as a substitute in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup, won by Barca 2–0. Alexis then started the opening match of La Liga, at home againstVillarreal CF, and scored his first goal in a 5–0 win. A week later, on 10 September 2011, he was stretchered off after 30 minutes following a challenge fromDani Estrada in a La Liga match against Real Sociedad.Sánchez returned on 1 November 2011 in an away match against Viktoria Plzeň. He also scored against Real Madrid on 10 December 2011 to equalize the game which they went on to win 1–3.

On 14 February 2012, Sánchez scored the first and second UEFA Champions League goals of his career in Barcelona's 3–1 victory against Bayer 04 Leverkusen. On 2 October he scored the first goal for Barcelona in a 0-2 win against Benfica.