There is an advertisement that has been running on Chilean television these last few weeks, stylishly shot and bold in its suggestions. Its scenario places us some 50 years in the future, on a rural farmhouse where a young schoolboy, wide-eyed, asks an elderly man for ideas for a history project for his homework.
His grandfather, preparing supper for the boy with his back to camera, says he has an idea. “Why not do something on the ‘Golden Generation’,” he suggests, at which point images of celebrating Chile supporters, in red shirts and waving scarves, come on to the screen, with distinct Russian backdrops. Grandfather, pouring water into the purifying machine — this is set in a climate-changed future, remember — talks wistfully about the ‘double championship’ and then the Russian experience.
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■ Alexis Sanchez: Blanks Arsenal talk while on Chile duty
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“Where were you?,” asks the enthralled grandson. At that point, we see the face of the kindly granddad: It is Alexis Sanchez, his face made up as lined and weathered, his hair grey.
It’s a clever advertisement, playing on the difference between the slow movements of the ageing granddad and the restless, quicksilver Sanchez that Chileans, and indeed football followers everywhere, have come to recognise instantly.
The phrase ‘Golden Generation’ is just as recognisable to Chileans, many of whom hope strongly that the most successful national squad in their history can by the end of next week add a Confederations Cup title to the South American crowns they have picked up in the last two summers.
Sanchez, 28, secured his own place in history on Thursday with the opportunist goal that put Chile 1-0 up early in their Group B draw with Germany, a result that all but secures their semi-final berth (they need only avoid defeat by two clear goals or more against Australia in Moscow on Sunday).
It was Sanchez’s 38th for his country, a total that put him one clear of Marcelo Salas for international goals at the head of the list of Chilean marksmen. Salas, a hero of the late 1990s and early Noughties, may have played fewer games — 70 caps to Alexis’s 112 — but then Salas, of Lazio and Juventus, did not spend a portion of his career as a winger as Alexis has. Salas operated right up front and often benefited from having another world-class centre-forward alongside him, in Ivan Zamorano, of Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
That pairing became known as ‘Sa-Za’, and helped Chile to the last 16 of the 1998 World Cup. Until the 2010 World Cup, that had marked a modern high point. But with Sanchez a key component of a pressing game, Chile, under a series of Argentina-born managers, have surpassed anything previous generations achieved. They have penetrated the knockout phases of the last two World Cups, and were a missed penalty away from knocking Brazil, the hosts, out before the quarter-finals last time around. But the real glint of this golden generation are the Copa American triumphs of 2015 and 2016, achieved under the management of Jorge Sampaoli and the incumbent Juan Antonio Pizzi.
“There’s a group who were born in the 1980s who have become the best players in our country’s history,” midfielder Arturo Vidal said. “And we have had managers, in Sampaoli and Pizzi, who were able to make us work well together and enjoy ourselves.”
Vidal, of Bayern Munich, is as conspicuous a leader of the golden generation as Sanchez, and there is vast experience through the spine of the team. Inter defender Gary Medel is one of a quartet of players in Russia for Chile’s first tilt at a Confederations Cup with over 100 caps. Medel, alias ‘Pitbull’, brings, like the dynamic, aggressive Vidal, a characteristic to the Chile team that Australia will be as mindful of as the finishing of Sanchez when the two sides face each other on Sunday. Chile, ranked fourth in the world by Fifa, are teak-tough, rugged, as well as talented.
The Confederations Cup is, like the advert on local television suggests, deemed a worthwhile title, too. A reported 10,000 Chileans have travelled, or will travel, to Russia to watch their heroes. As for their all-time leading scorer, Sanchez has made it clear that he is focused in Russia despite the swirl of speculation about his club future, which he has strongly suggested may soon be somewhere other than Arsenal, his employer for the last three years.
Nonetheless, his ears will certainly have pricked up at the news Arsenal have made a hefty bid to sign the French striker Alex Lacazette, a plausible replacement for the restless, rapid Sanchez.
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