In some unsurprising news, Alexis Sánchez has revealed he is focused on Chile’s attempts to win this year’s Confederations Cup and will leave contract discussions with Arsenal to this agent, Fernando Felicevich.
The 28-year-old joined up with his national team-mates in Moscow this week as their preparations for the upcoming tournament began, grabbing an assist for Chile’s only goal against Russia in a 1-1 draw on Friday.
Alexis with a brilliant assist against Russia just a minute after coming on pic.twitter.com/ZeHyM2se2s
— Terje (@ArsenalTerje) June 9, 2017
After 10 days’ break following Arsenal’s FA Cup Final triumph over Chelsea, the forward has insisted that he’s fully focused on helping the national side achieving success for the third year running.
Having won the Copa America for the first time in their history two years ago, they managed to retain their crown last year against Argentina. Naturally, they’ll be hoping to emulate that success against a variety of opposition this time around.
When questioned about his contract talks he said, “That is what my representative is looking at. He knows and will sit with the club, work out what is best for me.”
Arsenal are set to break their wage structure to offer Alexis a significant improvement on his current wage, believed to be around £300,000-a-week if negotiations are successful.
Speculation on his future has been continuous for the past year.
Bayern Munich have been tipped as frontrunners for his signature should he leave north London, though Manchester City have recently been linked with an imminent move once more.
Chile boss Juan Antonio Pizzi rated Alexis as a doubt for Friday’s fixture against Russia, though the energetic attacker was characteristically keen not to miss too many minutes of first-team action.
“I hope to play a few minutes,” Alexis admitted.
“We came from winning the Copa American Centenario and now we want to win the Confederations Cup. We have the quality.”
Chile’s Confederations Cup campaign begins on June 18 as they face Cameroon, Germany and Australia in Group B.
Along with tournament hosts Russia and Portugal, they are making their first appearance in this competition and will be eager to impress ahead of next year’s World Cup.