What happened to Gonzalo Sanchez the former Alianza Lima forward

What happened to Gonzalo Sánchez, the former Alianza Lima forward who never scored?

Formed in the minor leagues of the Alianza, Gonzalo Sánchez had the opportunity to reach the blue and white first team and even play in the Copa Libertadores, but he left without having scored a single goal at professional level.

Gonzalo Sanchez He’s a footballer that many Alianza Lima fans will surely remember, albeit not with much affection. Sánchez, now 22, is a forward who joined the blue and white first team from the smaller leagues. He made his professional debut at the summer tournament in 2018. Since then he has not enjoyed much regularity at Alianza. Despite this, he has added more than 1,100 at the club in three years, but he has left a curious statistic: he has not scored an official goal.

Despite being very young, Gonzalo Sánchez has always been asked if he never managed to score in La Liga 1 or the Copa Libertadores as a forward. His name has gone unnoticed in recent months so it’s very likely many have forgotten that he made a huge leap in his career last season.

Gonzalo Sánchez emerged from the smaller departments of Alianza Lima.  Photo: Alianza Lima

Gonzalo Sánchez emerged from the smaller departments of Alianza Lima. Photo: Alianza Lima

Gonzalo Sánchez and his time in the two alliances

Gonzalo Sánchez played in Alianza Lima’s first team between 2018 and 2020. He added the most minutes in 2020 as the Blue and Whites weren’t left with many options to fill the ‘9’ position following the sudden departure of Federico Rodríguez and Adrián Balboa when the season had already started. In this way, Sánchez ended up playing as a regular against the Libertadores.

Although it was a bad year for Alianza in general, fans couldn’t stomach the fact that their quarries’ young striker didn’t open the goal. A ligament injury in early 2021 made his situation worse, which is why he quietly joined Alianza Atlético mid-year. It was even worse for Gale: he never played a single full game, even as a starter, and the gate wasn’t opened in the short time he had.

Gonzalo Sánchez played very little at Alianza Atlético between 2021 and 2022.  Photo: Alianza Atlético

Gonzalo Sánchez played very little at Alianza Atlético between 2021 and 2022. Photo: Alianza Atlético

Gonzalo Sánchez and his unexpected leap into Dutch football

Although almost absent from the list at Alianza Atlético, Gonzalo Sánchez surprised everyone when his move to FC Emmen in the Netherlands was announced in July 2022. The forward signed a contract until mid-2024 and joined Peruvians Miguel Araujo and Fernando Pacheco to play in the Eredivisie. All this happened without having had very relevant performances in Peru in more than a year.

Unfortunately, Gonzalo Sánchez, despite being on the list for the first few games, has never made his debut in Emmen’s first team to this day. His time with the Dutch team is full of doubts than certainties. The last time his name was mentioned publicly was when he commented on Fernando Pacheco’s farewell post as he left for Deportivo Municipal.