The Sánchez Redemption: Alexis ready to prove everyone wrong at Inter

Following a disastrous stint at Old Trafford, Antonio Conte’s Inter will be the perfect opportunity for Alexis Sánchez to remind Europe of his world-class talent once more.

It seems almost too easy to simply write off a 30-year old Alexis Sánchez as a sad case of a player who just doesn’t have it anymore. With 32 Premier League appearances for Manchester United and just three goals while being paid £350,000 per week, the mercurial Chilean winger was not the superstar the Red Devils believed they had secured from Arsenal, but rather, an albatross symptomatic of incompetence at the club from the top down.

While an argument exists that age has simply caught up to Sánchez, his inclusion in Antonio Conte’s Inter revolution on a season-long loan could just be the spark that unlocks the player that starred routinely at the Camp Nou and Emirates in the past. For perhaps the first time since the best days of his tenure in North London, Sánchez is not a cancer that his club feels the need to cut out, but rather, a key piece in a reclamation project.

The duality of the move is almost poetic; just as Conte looks to bring Inter back to its rightful place among Europe’s elite football clubs, Sánchez’s personal redemption story this season at the San Siro could go a long way in defining his legacy. As the best player on two Copa América-winning Chile sides and a truly special player who could create magic with the ball at his feet, he deserves to be remembered for more than just being a United flop, and this next step in his journey will be the deciding factor.

While his stock may be at an all-time low and very few pundits and fans may still believe in the Chilean’s talent, he is not the first superstar to rediscover his form after a tumultuous career in Manchester. The case studies of both Ángel Di María and Memphis Depay suggest that once the bright lights and attention of playing for the biggest club in the Premier League fade, the opportunity to prove the doubters wrong will present itself.

Just over one year and six months removed from his regrettable decision to spurn Pep Guardiola and Manchester City in favor of local rivals United, that opportunity could come in a poetic fashion Sánchez could not have anticipated. In just two days, the winger has gone from being on the fringes of a United side in the Europa League to a key piece in what could be European football’s most exciting return to glory.

Moreover, with Inter drawn into the Champions League’s presumed ‘group of death’ alongside Borussia Dortmund and FC Barcelona, Sánchez’s redemption seems almost written in the stars. Mark your calendars for Champions League matchday two on Oct. 2, when Sánchez will return to the place where his rise to superstar status began eight years ago: the Camp Nou.