7 facts you did not know about Alexis Sanchez

#4 His First Salary Was £60 A Month

At 16, Sanchez moved 150 miles east of Tocopilla to the mining town of Calama to join Cobreloa - the club at which his later international teammates Charles Aranguiz and Eduardo Vargas also took their first steps in the professional game.

The older members of the squad took him under their wing and taught him how to cook and look after himself. On the pitch, he showed enough talent in training and youth matches to earn his professional debut aged 17, in February 2005.

The opponents were Deportes Temuco and the venue was the 12,000-capacity Estadio Zorros del Desierto in Calama. He came on as a 71st-minute substitute in a match that Cobreloa won 5-4.

It was a humble beginning to a career that would later see him play in the top flight in Argentina, Italy, Spain and England, and it had a salary to match. Even after breaking into the first team, Sanchez was paid just 50,000 Chilean pesos a month - the equivalent of £60.