It has been revealed that Tottenham Hotspur defender Davinson Sanchez had the chance to go to Barcelona two years ago but elected to go to Ajax instead.
The 21-year-old has been earning rave reviews with his performances for the North London in the Premier League and also the Champions League this season. He came to the attention of Spurs during his two seasons in Dutch football with Ajax.
Sanchez was discovered as a 17-year-old by Juan Carlos Osorio, who is now coach of the Mexican national team, and he signed him for Atletico Nacional.
He would then catch the eyes of many European clubs at the 2016 Libertadores with a string of excellent displays. Among the clubs interested were Ajax and Barcelona so Sanchez was left with a dilemma and went to Osorio for advice.
“I remember him calling me and asking if he should go to Ajax or Barcelona, who were also interested,” Osorio told Sky Sports.
“I just thought the best thing for him was to play football, and maybe in Barcelona he would not get playing time, he would be a sub. That is what he decided to do, and then he went to Holland.”
After just one campaign with Ajax, Sanchez would then be snapped up by Spurs in the summer for a club-record £42million. He has been so good this season that his new boss Mauricio Pochettino has come out and said that he believes the defender has the ability to become one of the best centre-backs in the world.
The one way to assess the impact that Sanchez is to see the ease at which he settled into a Tottenham backline that already had arguably the best centre-back pairing in the Premier League in Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen.
They changed formation from a two to three at the back and yet they haven’t missed a beat.