Alexis Sanchez will hope to restore his reputation as ‘The Wonder Child’ (El Niño Maravilla) when he completes a move to Inter, as Gazzetta dello Sport reported this morning.
Sanchez has scored just five goals in 45 appearances for Manchester United since joining the Reds in January 2018.
The forward wants to put a disastrous 2018-19 campaign behind him and has decided a return to Serie A, where he last played for Udinese in 2011, is the best way to do that.
GdS reported: “The talent that earned Sanchez his Niño Maravilla nickname back in Chile, and which persuaded the mayor of his home city Tocopilla to gift him a pair of football boots when he was still a teenager, can still light up stadiums around the world.
“Players like the Chilean often need a specific context to express themselves. Inter have made a good decision by taking a gamble on him.”
Sanchez found the right clubs to show off his talent both at Udinese and at Arsenal, scoring 30 goals and creating 14 assists for the Gunners in an exceptional 2016-17 season.
United made their move for the Chilean six months later, but after scoring his first goal for the club on his second appearance things went badly wrong under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
GdS continued: “Flattened by the burden of a €15 million annual salary, bonuses included, and overwhelmed by the problems of a club which has never found peace since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013, Sanchez has disappeared in Manchester.
“He ended up on the bench for Mourinho and was used sparingly by Solskjaer too.”
Solskjaer has made a series of diplomatic comments in recent weeks in an attempt to protect Sanchez’s market value, but a departure always seemed inevitable this summer.
Inter, the Champions League, the charm of a European city like Milan and Antonio Conte could be the right ingredients to help the forward resurrect his career at the age of 30.
