عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Sports

The Verdict: Who Has Done Better Out of the Sánchez-Mkhitaryan Deal?

Both Alexis Sánchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all smiles on signing for their new clubs, but who will prove the better acquisition? Photograph: Getty Images
Both Alexis Sánchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all smiles on signing for their new clubs, but who will prove the better acquisition? Photograph: Getty Images
TT
TT

The Verdict: Who Has Done Better Out of the Sánchez-Mkhitaryan Deal?

Both Alexis Sánchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all smiles on signing for their new clubs, but who will prove the better acquisition? Photograph: Getty Images
Both Alexis Sánchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all smiles on signing for their new clubs, but who will prove the better acquisition? Photograph: Getty Images

The swap deal which saw Alexis Sánchez join Manchester United and Henrikh Mkhitaryan move to Arsenal was finally confirmed on Monday after weeks of negotiations. The Chile forward has signed a four-and-a-half-year contract at Old Trafford worth an estimated £350,000 a week, while Mkhitaryan is now contracted to Arsenal until 2021 having left United only 18 months after joining from Borussia Dortmund for £27m.

Both José Mourinho and Arsène Wenger appear happy with their new acquisitions but which manager has got the better end of the deal and will both players be successful at their new clubs? Our writers give their verdict on one of the most significant transfers in recent years.

Dominic Fifield

Is Alexis Sánchez a good signing for United? Absolutely, as long as his wage package does not generate discontent within the dressing room. A fully focused Sánchez is a world‑class talent, a player to reinvigorate United’s front-line.

Is Henrikh Mkhitaryan a good signing for Arsenal? The Armenian may not be quite at Sánchez’s stellar level but he has a point to prove and would enjoy the prospect of playing alongside Mesut Özil (at least until the summer). At least he actually wants to be at the Emirates Stadium.

Who has done the better out of the two clubs? Sánchez feels the more eye-catching signing given City had come close to paying £60m for him last summer. The bean counters at Arsenal must still be kicking themselves for opting not to push that deal through in August.

Andy Hunter

Is Sánchez a good signing for United? An excellent signing, provided the motivation for his contract stand-off at Arsenal was to chase the game’s biggest prizes rather than one last Premier League pay day. Sánchez’s arrival immediately raises the quality of United’s attack.

Is Henrikh Mkhitaryan a good signing for Arsenal? The club have acquired a talented and experienced player to replace another who would have been out of contract in the summer. Whether another pleasing-on-the-eye creator is a priority for this team is debatable but Mkhitaryan should inject much-needed quality.

Who has done the better out of the two clubs? United. Should Mkhitaryan rediscover his consistency and confidence he can grace the Premier League as many hoped he would. Of the two Sánchez looks better suited to the task of elevating his new club.

Jamie Jackson

Is Sánchez a good signing for Manchester United? Yes. The forward instantly elevates José Mourinho’s side. United lack a prolific scorer beyond Romelu Lukaku and 80 goals in 165 games shows the Chilean can be that man.

Is Mkhitaryan a good signing for Arsenal? So far Mkhitaryan has failed to prove he can win matches in English football, having serially disappointed for United. The hope is the Armenian is not one more of the kind of uneven footballer in which Arsenal seem to specialise.

Who has done the better out of the two clubs? Manchester United. Would Arsène Wenger have preferred to retain Sánchez? The response is firmly in the affirmative. The loss is compounded by the Chilean joining a domestic rival.

Amy Lawrence

Is Sánchez a good signing for United? Sánchez has to be a valuable addition for United. A player with an almost obsessive desire to chase and instinctively attack (even if that makes him reckless in possession sometimes). As long as he does not burn out he is a steal.

Is Mkhitaryan a good signing for Arsenal? A classic Wengerian signing – not necessarily what they need, a tricksy ball player who at United could delight but also disappear. The critical element is whether he has come in to combine with, or potentially replace, Özil.

Who has done the better out of the two clubs? United have recruited a ready made Premier League star. Arsenal have gained a talent with a question mark. If a fee had been included in addition to the swap Arsenal’s business might have looked better but bringing in some quality in exchange for a few more months of Sánchez is understandable.

Barney Ronay

Is Sánchez a good signing for United? Yes. He is a really good player. He still wants to win things. The price is fine. He has a certain kind of edge and arrogance – he still thinks he is as good as Messi and Ronaldo – that fits with the template. With a bit of luck Sánchez could be José’s mercenary, less interesting Cantona.

Is Mkhitaryan a good signing for Arsenal? Yes. He actually wants to play for them. A (possible/unlikely) reunion with Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang could be fruitful. And Arsenal need both speed and someone to make the passes when Özil does not.

Who has done the better out of the two clubs? Fernando Felicevich and Mino Raiola. Failing that Arsenal, if only because the whole Sánchez saga has exposed Arsène Wenger’s increasing loss of control.

Daniel Taylor

Is Sánchez a good signing for United? Of course he is. United already have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to Manchester City but, if Sánchez had opted to join their neighbours, rather than choosing Old Trafford, it would have been difficult to see any way Mourinho could restore a bit more balance in England’s leading football city.

Is Mkhitaryan a good signing for Arsenal? He is a wonderfully talented footballer and it easy to see why Wenger admires him. Equally, Mkhitaryan never fully showed the strength of personality to win over Mourinho and, on that front, it is a classic Arsenal signing – a stylish player who will bewitch the crowds but can drift to the edges when the heat of the battle is rising.

Who has done the better out of the two clubs? United should probably have the better deal here because they desperately needed a bit more stardust in attack to stay with City in the next few seasons. Sánchez is superior to anyone United have in their forward positions, whereas Mkhitaryan is probably seen more by Arsenal as a replacement for Özil should the German, as expected, leave in the summer.

The Guardian Sport

Most Viewed

 
 
Sports

Algeria Hope to Turn Talent into Results on World Cup Return

Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT

Algeria Hope to Turn Talent into Results on World Cup Return

Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)

Algeria return to ‌the World Cup for the first time since 2014 carrying the familiar mix of promise, pressure and unpredictability that has long defined one of Africa's most gifted footballing nations.

Drawn in Group J alongside holders Argentina, Austria and tournament debutants Jordan, the Desert Foxes face a stern test of whether their gifted squad can finally deliver on the biggest stage.

The years since Algeria's 2019 Africa Cup of Nations triumph have brought more frustration than fulfilment.

Failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after ‌a dramatic playoff ‌defeat by Cameroon still lingers, while the ‌2025 ⁠Nations Cup ended ⁠in disappointment despite a perfect group-stage campaign. Algeria looked among the favorites before a quarter-final loss to Nigeria revived doubts over their ability to deliver in decisive moments.

Captain Riyad Mahrez remains the team's creative focal point.

The former Manchester City winger, now playing in Saudi Arabia, still dictates Algeria's rhythm with his composure ⁠and technical quality, but the side are increasingly ‌looking to a younger generation ‌to ease the burden.

Wolfsburg striker Mohamed Amoura has emerged as one of ‌Algeria's main attacking threats, offering pace and directness alongside ‌Mahrez's craft.

Manchester City defender Rayan Ait-Nouri brings energy and attacking thrust from left back, while young winger Adil Boulbina has added to the growing sense of long-term promise around the squad.

Yet uncertainty continues to ‌shadow Algeria.

Coach Vladimir Petkovic has struggled at times to mould the side's attacking talent into a ⁠cohesive unit, ⁠while defensive inconsistency has repeatedly undermined their progress in major tournaments.

A goalkeeping crisis has added to the concerns.

Anthony Mandrea has been ruled out, while Luca Zidane and Melvin Mastil have both been called up despite injury problems, prompting Algeria to turn to Oussama Benbot despite his recent international retirement.

Benbot stepped away from the national team after being an unused substitute at the Nations Cup in Morocco earlier this year, but the USM Alger goalkeeper has been recalled to the squad.

His reputation has risen after helping his club to win the African Confederation Cup with a shootout victory over Egypt's Zamalek in May.

Sports

Forward Al‑Tamari Headlines Jordan’s First World Cup Squad

Football - World Cup - AFC Qualifiers - Third Round - Group B - South Korea v Jordan - Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon, South Korea - March 25, 2025 Jordan coach Jamal Sellami before the match. (Reuters)
Football - World Cup - AFC Qualifiers - Third Round - Group B - South Korea v Jordan - Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon, South Korea - March 25, 2025 Jordan coach Jamal Sellami before the match. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Forward Al‑Tamari Headlines Jordan’s First World Cup Squad

Football - World Cup - AFC Qualifiers - Third Round - Group B - South Korea v Jordan - Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon, South Korea - March 25, 2025 Jordan coach Jamal Sellami before the match. (Reuters)
Football - World Cup - AFC Qualifiers - Third Round - Group B - South Korea v Jordan - Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon, South Korea - March 25, 2025 Jordan coach Jamal Sellami before the match. (Reuters)

Jordan coach Jamal Sellami

has announced his 26-man squad for the World Cup in North America, the country’s first appearance in the tournament.

Sellami

will rely on Stade Rennais forward Mousa Al-Tamari to lead the team in a ‌tough Group ‌J.

The Jordan Football Association ‌posted ⁠a video on ⁠Instagram of the Moroccan coach unveiling the squad.

Jordan will play a friendly against Colombia on June 8.

They will begin their World Cup ⁠campaign against Austria on ‌June 17 ‌in San Francisco, before facing Algeria ‌on June 23, and defending ‌champions Argentina five days later.

Jordan squad:

Goalkeepers: Yazeed Abu Laila – Abdullah Al-Fakhouri – Noor Bani Attieh.

Defenders: Abdullah Nasib – ‌Saad Al-Rosan – Yazan Al-Arab – Saleem Obeid – Mohammad Abu ⁠Al-Nadi – ⁠Hossam Abu Al-Dahab – Ehsan Haddad – Anas Bani – Muhannad Abu Taha – Mohammad Abu Hasheesh.

Midfielders: Noor Al-Rawabdeh – Nizar Al-Rashdan – Ibrahim Saadeh – Rajaei Ayed – Amer Jamous – Mohammad Al-Daoud – Mahmoud Al-Mardi.

Forwards: Mousa Al-Tamari – Ouda Al-Fakhouri – Mohammad Abu Zraiq – Ali Azaizeh – Ibrahim Sabra – Ali Olwan.

Sports

From Rocafonda to the World Cup: Lamine Yamal’s Meteoric Rise

Football - Euro 2024 - Quarter-final - Spain v Germany - Stuttgart Arena, Stuttgart, Germany - July 5, 2024 Spain's Lamine Yamal celebrates after Dani Olmo scores their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - Euro 2024 - Quarter-final - Spain v Germany - Stuttgart Arena, Stuttgart, Germany - July 5, 2024 Spain's Lamine Yamal celebrates after Dani Olmo scores their first goal. (Reuters)
TT
TT

From Rocafonda to the World Cup: Lamine Yamal’s Meteoric Rise

Football - Euro 2024 - Quarter-final - Spain v Germany - Stuttgart Arena, Stuttgart, Germany - July 5, 2024 Spain's Lamine Yamal celebrates after Dani Olmo scores their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - Euro 2024 - Quarter-final - Spain v Germany - Stuttgart Arena, Stuttgart, Germany - July 5, 2024 Spain's Lamine Yamal celebrates after Dani Olmo scores their first goal. (Reuters)

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will play at a record sixth World Cup in 2026, but years from now the tournament may instead be remembered as Lamine Yamal's first.

From the concrete square in Mataro the Spanish 18-year-old used to play in, to the biggest stages in world football, his rise has been dazzling.

His uncle Abdul Nasraoui used to keep a small replica World Cup trophy in his bakery in the humble neighborhood of Rocafonda, a 20-mile (32-kilometer) crawl up the Catalan coast from Barcelona, telling people it was for when his nephew wins it.

Abdul had the trophy before Yamal even debuted for Spain, because he knew something special was coming. Many claim they did, in Rocafonda, but importantly for Barca it was Jordi Roura who got there first.

Alerted to Yamal by a scout, Barcelona's then youth football chief Roura and close colleague Aureli Altimira pounced. In the chaos of a trial match, Lamine stood out.

"We were there with Aureli and at the beginning we saw him and he looked a bit odd, kind of scrawny, he moved a bit strangely, and we said, 'hmm let's see...'," Roura tells AFP.

"Then once they start playing, it's difficult, right? Because imagine 20 kids of seven, eight years old, all chasing the ball.

"Even so, Lamine would sometimes do something where you'd go, 'Damn!'. Instead of just running after the ball, sometimes he would find space, wait, look for his left foot, execute really quickly."

One attribute, honed on the square where if your feet aren't fast enough to swerve defenders you can end up on the concrete, marked out little Lamine.

"Dribbling might be the most innate technical action, right?" says Roura. "It's hard to train a dribbler. He had that. He would feint, do things which made you say 'wow'.

"We thought this kid had something special, even if he looked a bit slight, and decided to sign him."

Negotiations were quick with Lamine's father Mounir Nasraoui from Morocco, and his mother Sheila Ebana, from Equatorial Guinea.

He was a quiet, even shy child, who loved to play football and spent a lot of time with his paternal grandmother, Fatima.

She was the first of the family to move to Spain, arriving on a ferry from Tangier in 1990 and slowly bringing across her children in the following years.

Fatima settled in Rocafonda and remains there, although Mounir, after being stabbed during an altercation in 2024, has since relocated to the upmarket Barcelona neighborhood of Sarria.

After Lamine's parents split up when he was three, he also lived with his mother in Roca del Valles, north of Mataro, but Rocafonda was always home.

It is represented in his goal celebration, using his hands to show the numbers 304, the last digits of the neighborhood's postcode.

Now even in the more well-to-do parts of Mataro the number appears.

Rocafonda is north-east of the elegant center, a neighborhood with a negative reputation for crime and poverty, although now it is famous for being where Lamine came from.

Glance down the right street and you can catch a narrow glimpse of sweet Mediterranean blue.

The winger and his father are spotted less frequently there now, but the games go on, with players duking it out in front of a mural of Lamine, painted in 2025.

"With all these great players... they're capable of doing the same, or more than they did when they were children, and that's very difficult, very rare, and that's why they're the chosen ones," said Roura.

"(Lamine) enjoys playing, and I think that even when he was very little, when the challenge was greater, when a game was harder, that's when he liked it the most, you know?"

- 'No limits' -

Not everyone has the accuracy of the neighborhood's "idol" and an "example" as youngsters sitting and waiting for a chance to play describe him.

The ball is lashed high over the fence that divides the concrete pitch from the road, to howls of frustration.

The kids call to a passer-by, before one player zips past on an electric scooter to retrieve it.

But for the interception, it may have rolled down the road and past the bar run by Lamine's uncle, "Familia LY 304", since he gave up his bakery.

Over the past three years Abdul has answered plenty of questions about Lamine, but with concerns over the winger's fitness heading into the World Cup, he doesn't feel like speaking for now.

On a shelf behind the bar, sits his replica trophy. Abdul's dream, just three years after Lamine made his professional debut aged just 15, could come true remarkably quickly.

"When you see the resume he already has at 18, it's scary, so what this kid can achieve has no limits," added Roura.

Yamal was still studying for his exams during Spain's run to Euro 2024 glory, where he captured the world's attention with a sensational strike against France.

That moment is memorialized on one wall of the bar, along with others from the winger's short yet glittering career for club and country, along with two framed shirts.

Nearly three decades after arriving from Morocco, Abdul is still happy working. He sits and eats a few mouthfuls of vegetables before a shout comes from the kitchen and he is on his feet again, bringing dishes, olive oil and bread to customers.

"Ojala -- I hope -- ojala," he says on the prospect of Lamine bringing the real thing back to Rocafonda. "If we win the World Cup, then I'll talk."