Erick Sánchez at his maximum value as a counterpart of his past

“In Mineros I was between 67-68 kilos. At the level of body fat I reached 24 percent fat and now I’ve dropped to 11 percent and I’ve stayed there,” commented Erick Sánchez on how he got to the now-defunct Ascenso MX and what that he had to overcome to be in a privileged position in Pachuca with just 23 years of age and a World Cup to play for.

Los Tuzos are two games away from lifting the Liga MX title and in the midfielder they found one of their key pieces that ended up exploding in the present Apertura 2022 where they formed a great couple with Luis Chávez. His statistics speak for him, since he boasts an 83% pass effectiveness, more than 140 intercepted balls so far in the championship, six duels won on the ground on average per game, in addition to two goals and three assists despite not being their primary tasks.

Now he aims to lift the title of the Mexican first division and would do so as the best valued Mexican in the entire division, according to data from Transfermarkt. His letter is valued at 8.8 million dollars and also presumes to be the Liga MX player who has increased his value the most in 2022, since he has doubled in recent months thanks to his good performances.

All this would not have been possible if Erick had not overcome several obstacles in the recent past, one of them was his time at Mineros de Zacatecas where he spent two years. Reaching the silver division is not an easy step for any player, even if it is a transition period, however, the Mexican went from doubts to work and it did not take long to attract the attention of the team that formed him.

He debuted in the first division in 2017 under the command of Diego Alonso, however, he did not have recurring action afterwards. It was Paulo Pezzolano who gave him an opportunity again with the Tuzos and in the midst of the crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a total success of the Hidalgo team that now sees the soccer player pay off.

How is the management of a young footballer in a second division team?

-“It is very useful for the players to play in the Ascent league to finish consolidating, however they enter a very difficult stage and of course they get the thought that they can get stuck in the division and honestly those who they manage to return to a first team and succeed. The treatment varies with each player, in the case of Erick Sánchez he met (Óscar) Rambo Torres, who treated the players as if they were his children, filled them with confidence and support”, commented Gabriel Simón, former Mineros technical assistant during Sánchez’s time with the team, for El Economista.

Chiquito Sánchez is a modern ’10’, who knows how to tread both areas and who enjoys a great individual technique to handle the ball, however it was not always like that according to the words of Gabriel, who observed the midfielder’s day-to-day in the Zacatecan institution.

What did you see different in Erick Sánchez within the work of Mineros?

“Sánchez’s thing went through a matter of great hunger and many desires to transcend, look that he was a technically not very gifted player, I saw him in tactical work, but due to the rhythm of the game and intensity there was no one to beat him. He was a A transcendental player in the dispute over the ball, he became the undisputed starter (in Mineros) and grew a lot in his footballing maturity,” Simón explained.

Finally, the now coach of Municipal Greece of Costa Rica, stressed that the board always saw the player as an element with potential to play in the first division with Pachuca. He even stated that Armando Martínez and Alan Calleja, directors of Mineros at the time, were key to the player returning to the Tuzos.

TIME

END GOING

Thursday

Toluca vs Pachuca

Nemesio Diez Stadium

20:06 HR

TIME

ROUND END

Domingo

Pachuca vs Toluca

Hidalgo Stadium

19:36 HR

yoshua.navarro@eleconomista.mx