Leeds professional Isaac Schmidt (25) has known for a long time how good his national team buddy Alvyn Sanches (22) is. After all, he was dribbled out by Alvyn on the playground when he was just a toddler.
There's no other way to put it: Alvyn Sanches (22) has conjured himself into the national team with his performances in the Super League. Talents like him are rare. Especially in small Switzerland.
Lausanne coach Ludovic Magnin raved about his midfield jewel Alvyn Sanches to blue Sport months ago. "There's his instinct, his technique, his timing and flair in attack. He is also strong against the ball, disciplined and, although he is a lightweight, very robust," said Magnin.
Sanches: "Magnin told me to enjoy it"
Now his protégé is joining the national team for the first time. He should enjoy it and soak it all up, Magnin told him, as Sanches himself explains.
blue Sport wants to know what it does to him when the whole of footballing Switzerland is raving about him and his market value is exploding, and whether he has people around him to keep him grounded. Sanches smiles and says: "I'm not taking off, I'm calm."
The Swiss-Portuguese dual national has been hyped for years - he has been considered a super talent at Lausanne since he was a youngster. Hardly anyone has known Sanches' feel for the ball longer than his national team buddy Isaac Schmidt (25). A few years older than Sanches, he grew up in the same neighborhood in Lausanne.
"Little Alvyn played there, it was amazing how good he was"
He remembers his first encounter very well. Schmidt was eleven or twelve at the time and played in Lausanne's U13 team. He was on the football pitch with a teammate. "We told a bunch of eight-year-olds that we were going to play a two-a-side match. We thought we would beat the ten or so little ones 10:0," he says. But things turned out differently. "Little Alvyn was playing. It was amazing how good he was back then, technically incredibly strong," says Schmidt.
So did Schmidt and his buddy lose to Alvyn and the tots? Schmidt rolls his eyes and says: "No... Yes, we did. We have lost."
