Sanchez the gem in Chile's goal mine

South America's Cristiano Ronaldo is 'missing piece in Barcelona's jigsaw' and is being sold before the transfer market falls apart

Alexis Sanchez of Chile (ap)

The man at the head of the world's most successful football club was taking an unusual interest in printer cartridges. In a memo to staff Barcelona's president, Sandro Rossell, wrote that the club could no longer afford to print documents in colour. Sending out literature in black and white would save the European champions €30,000 a year. There would also have to be cutbacks in catering and security.

At the same time, Rossell was preparing to pay €38m (£33.8m), or 10 per cent of the club's debts, for Alexis Sanchez. Football, even at the rarefied level Barcelona play it, has never had more fur coats and fewer knickers.

All markets, especially before they collapse, are driven by fear – the fear of missing out. It made millions of Americans buy junk bonds before the Great Crash of 1929. It fuelled Tony Blair's housing boom. Now it drives the football transfer market.

Nobody wants to ape Harry Redknapp, who as West Ham manager was approached by "two villains" who persuaded him to give a trial to a young talent from Kiev. After a reserve game at Barnet, he considered that Andriy Shevchenko was "nothing special". The little known Turkish club, Gaziantepspor, thought $1.5m too much for a young Brazilian called Kaka, which is one of the reasons why it remains little known.

When asked why Internazionale had not bid for either Sanchez or Carlos Tevez, the club's sporting director, Marco Branca, replied simply that they were unaffordable. "The market is crazy," he said.

As an illustration of the madness you needed to have been at a supporters' meeting in Lens, where the president, Gervais Martel, announced he would be selling his 18-year-old centre-half, Raphaël Varane, to Real Madrid for €10m. Varane is, according to Martel, "a phenomenon" who was wanted by Manchester United but he has played professional football for barely six months and, whatever he did, it was not enough to prevent Lens being relegated from Le Championnat.

It is a market that cannot last and at Udinese, Atletico Madrid and Palermo they understand this only too well. Each has a precious South American asset – Sanchez, Sergio Aguero and Javier Pastore respectively – whom they bought cheaply and are now preparing to sell big.

Sanchez will probably go to Barcelona, Aguero to Juventus and Pastore maybe to Chelsea, perhaps to Manchester City. If their clubs receive their asking prices, €145m will be spent on three players, two of whom have never kicked a Champions' League football in their lives.

They are transfers that go against the grain at the Nou Camp and the Bernabeu. In Florentino Perez's first term as president at Real, the civil engineer from Hortaleza was shocked when Madrid's sporting director, Jorge Valdano, told him that, statistically, three of every five transfers fail. The answer was to sign world-class certainties and the age of the galactico was born.

Barcelona rarely spend heavily on unproven talent. The side that overcame Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions' League last season was overwhelmingly Catalan. Dani Alves and David Villa were expensive but they were over 25 when they came to the Nou Camp and they had been battle-hardened in La Liga at Seville and Valencia.

To Barcelona or Manchester City, a club that does not have to worry about its printing bills, the 22-year-old Sanchez offers a lot but he is not proven. Tocopilla, the mining and fishing town where he grew up on Chile's arid northern coast, translates as the "devil's corner" and that is where any full-back hemmed in by Sanchez must feel himself.

Despite the comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo, he does not look like him. Sanchez is short, powerfully fast, and his success at Udinese, whom he first helped save from relegation then took into the Champions' League, arrived when he began to bulk up.

In Chile's far north they always knew Sanchez would embrace greatness. The reaction at his first club, Cobreloa, deep in the country's copper belt, calls to mind Alex Ferguson when he first set eyes on Ryan Giggs, whom Manchester United's manager said was the only youngster that he knew instantly would make the grade.

"The first time I saw him, I said he had no limits," Cobreloa's manager, Nelson Acosta, said. "Normally in young boys there is something missing – be it skill, vision or the ability to beat a man. Not in Alexis."

Like Ronaldo he wears the No 7 shirt and when he ran half the length of the pitch to score the third goal in a 7-0 thrashing of Palermo in their own stadium he deceived the goalkeeper with a Ronaldo stepover before scoring one of his four goals.

Like Ronaldo, he can play as a winger, a support striker or, at a pinch, a centre-forward. His partnership with Antonio di Natale produced 35 goals and one with Lionel Messi might produce more. The thought of Sanchez on one wing and David Silva on the other is what nurtures Manchester City's dimming hopes of bringing him to Eastlands. But he has had only one great season.

What seems strange is how keen Udinese and Palermo appear to see their icons leave. When Manuel Neuer, a world-class keeper, paraded the German Cup through the streets of Gelsenkirchen after his final match for Schalke, one fan, outraged at his decision to leave for Bayern Munich, aimed a punch at him. They had offered Neuer €7m a year to stay.

In Sicily, Palermo's president, Maurizio Zamparini, announced: "The first club to reach €50m will get Pastore. It is no secret he likes Milan, Inter, Juventus, Manchester City and Chelsea." He included Barcelona and Real Madrid on that list just to make sure nobody was left out.

Udinese's owner, Giampaolo Pozzo, was also flogging his wares: "Sanchez is the missing piece in Pep Guardiola's jigsaw, the player who makes a difference. He is not expensive since Madrid will win nothing next season if Barcelona sign him. If Cesc Fabregas is worth €40m, then Sanchez is worth €50m and I am the one who sets the price." And for that kind of money, all the literature at Udine's Stadio Friuli can be embossed in gold leaf.

South American superstars

Alexis Sanchez (Age 22)

Youngest player to feature in the Copa Libertadores and youngest to play for Chile. Bought by Udinese for $3m in 2006 but spent two years on loan in Chile and Argentina before returning.

Sergio Aguero (23)

Broke Diego Maradona's record as the youngest player in the Argentinian First Division and cost Atletico Madrid $23m from Independiente. Forged a powerful partnership with Diego Forlan that won Europa League.

Javier Pastore (22)

Came to prominence when he almost took Huracan to the Argentinian title for the first time and was signed by Palermo for £5m. In his first season he helped Sicilians to fifth in Serie A but only brief appearances in World Cup.

Carlos Tevez (27)

Unless Manchester City's captain radically reduces his wage demands,it is hard to see any club in Italy or Spain wanting him. He has already damned Manchester in TV interview and wants to move to be with family.

Tim Rich