Alexis Sanchez’s Christmas visit to a children’s home in Chile went viral on Thursday night, and it’s no surprise it did.
The Manchester United player sat in a room full of kids to chat with them, and with kids being kids, there have been some brilliant bits in the conversation.
It started with Alexis Sanchez telling the children to ask him whatever they wanted to, and the first question was ‘Why did you break up with Mayte?”
The end of the footballer’s relationship with the actress was a big thing in Chile a few months ago, and given his reaction at the time, it’s no surprise he quickly tried to change the subject.
Then Sanchez asked a boy what he wanted to be in the future, and he said a ‘football player’. That’s when the Man United attacker started giving some advice.
“Behave well and study,” said Sanchez. “Don’t smoke and don’t drink. I didn’t drink and don’t smoke.” (via La Cuarta).
“Like Arturo?” asked the kid, in a reference to the Chile and Barcelona midfielder Arturo Vidal, caught in several controversies in the past few years.
With the visit turning out to be a be thing, ADN Radio managed to interview Luís Ortuzar, director of the children’s home. He’s claimed that Sanchez’s presence turned out to be a surprise for all involved, and he now expects that the contact with the kids does well for the player in his football career too.
“It was a beautiful surprise that we lived yesterday and it comes from a contact, nothing from us, they told us that this possibility could exist and we got a big surprise when we saw him,” Ortuzar told ADN.
“In 24 hours this issue began to arise, but we never knew that Alexis was coming in. He stayed for about an hour and a half and gave boots and helped the reconstruction of a pool so they enjoy it in the summer.
“He gave a lot of love, a lot of affection to the children, as we did not know he was coming, it ended up being an impact, it was a very beautiful evening and we are very happy with what happened between Alexis and the children.”
Asked about how the player looked, the director said: “I saw him very well, calm, relaxed, if the energy of the children helps him to raise his game, we will be happy, since somehow we would give him back the hand he gave us.”
“I hope that this spirit that he took from the children strengthens him and he returns to be that player he always was.”
