Graceful Davinson Sánchez Brings Touch of Baresi to Tottenham’s Backline

Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez keeps close watch on Alexis Sánchez of Arsenal in the north London derby. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez keeps close watch on Alexis Sánchez of Arsenal in the north London derby. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
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Graceful Davinson Sánchez Brings Touch of Baresi to Tottenham’s Backline

Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez keeps close watch on Alexis Sánchez of Arsenal in the north London derby. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez keeps close watch on Alexis Sánchez of Arsenal in the north London derby. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Rarely can a club have broken their transfer record with such little fanfare. When Davinson Sánchez arrived at Tottenham in August for a fee of up to £42m, most headlines simply noted that at last Spurs had bought someone, anyone, after a summer of inactivity. Three months later, however, and that fee now seems significant because it is starting to look like a bargain.

The 21-year-old Colombian centre‑half has taken to the upper echelons of club football with an ease as graceful as his running style. It was his Sánchez on Sánchez tackle that led to the free-kick which opened the scoring in last Saturday’s north London derby. But it was not a foul. Holding off the Chilean, Davinson reached his long leg around his opponent to scoop the ball away. He was Tottenham’s most composed defender on an unexpectedly torrid afternoon and carried that performance into midweek where he won his duel with Dortmund’s feted striker Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang.

Sánchez combines imperious physicality with impeccable pace, but most striking is his composure. For someone so young, though the defender’s single previous season in European football was a marquee one at Ajax, he never seems ruffled. He is able to read a defensive situation effectively and choose the appropriate means to deal with it. His role model, one he acquired after involved YouTube study, is Franco Baresi. You can understand why.

Yes, he makes mistakes; Aubameyang ghosted behind him to turn Andriy Yarmolenko’s glorious backheel past Hugo Lloris for the opening goal on Tuesday. But he has not made many and his manager, Mauricio Pochettino, looked pleased at being finally able to wax lyrical about his acquisition.

“I am so happy with him,” Pochettino said before Saturday’s Premier League encounter with West Bromwich Albion. “He is doing well, very well. He’s only 21 years old but he is more mature than that. In only a few months, he’s showing he can do a fantastic job for us.

“You see against Dortmund how many times he was with Aubameyang one v one. Or look against Swansea against Tammy Abraham, or Real Madrid against Cristiano Ronaldo. How many central defenders can play one v one and escape? How many players can be tight and press and think ‘If you run, I run’ because they are so confident in their running? Not many centre-backs in the world can do this. But we expect more from him. He’s one of the best today, but there is massive potential for him to improve.”

For his manager those areas of potential include, well, everything. “Tactical, physical condition, technique, every single aspect because he’s still very young,” Pochettino said. “He arrived late in the transfer market and with no proper pre-season because he was playing in the qualification for the national team in Colombia. He had no time to work with us. We need one month and a half or two months’ pre-season with him and then I’m sure he’s going to show a different level.”

Sánchez’s career to this early point has been action-packed. He has made 16 appearances for Tottenham this season, and played 45 times for Ajax as they finished runners-up in the Dutch and Europa League. Before that, as a 19-year-old, he won the Copa Libertadores with his boyhood club Atlético Nacional of Medellin. That season he learned his trade as a defender having passed through the Nacional youth system in midfield.

Asked why Sánchez has adjusted to the rigours of the Premier and Champions League so quickly, Pochettino said: “Because he’s so clever, very humble and he’s very open to learn.

“He’s a player that when you tell him something his reaction is to be open and be critical with himself. That is a massive skill for a player, when he’s so open to improve”.

If Sánchez continues the progress he has made in each year of his career so far, Pochettino is confident his name will feature in many more headlines yet. “He has the opportunity to be one of the best centre-halves in the world.”

The Guardian Sport



Japan’s King Kazu Wants More After First Appearance of 40th Season 

Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)
Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)
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Japan’s King Kazu Wants More After First Appearance of 40th Season 

Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)
Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)

Japan's Kazuyoshi "King Kazu" Miura made his first appearance of his 40th season as a professional footballer at the weekend and shows no sign of wanting to hang up his boots any time soon.

The former international forward, who turned 58 in February, came on as a late substitute in Atletico Suzuka's 2-1 win over YSCC Yokohama in the fourth tier of the Japanese pyramid on Sunday.

The popular striker signed an 18-month loan deal with Suzuka last June but a leg injury sustained in January had kept him on the sidelines from the start of this Japan Football League season.

"I hope to play again showing my character," Miura told Kyodo news agency after the match.

"I managed to play thanks to the support from everyone. I'm looking to stepping up a gear from here."

Miura made his first two appearances for Santos in the 1986 Brazilian Championship, having headed alone to South America to pursue his football dream as a 15-year-old.

He returned to Japan as an established international to join Verdy Kawasaki and helped them win the first two J.League titles in 1993 and 1994. He scored 55 goals in 89 appearances for Japan, the last of which came in 2000.

Miura, whose long club career has also included spells in Italy, Croatia, Australia and Portugal, still has a way to go to match Egyptian Ezzeldin Bahader's record of turning out for a professional team at the age of 74.

Given his commitment to the game, however, it might be foolish to write him off.

"When I was around 35 or 40, I did start saying to myself, 'I can't keep playing this way'," he told FIFA.com in April.

"Rather than giving any thought to quitting, it was more about pushing myself to give more. It's not so much that the word 'retire' isn't in my vocabulary, but more that I've never felt any desire to do it."