From Alexis Sanchez to Marcelo Salas: Serie A’s Top Five Chileans

Hugo Rubio was the first Chilean to play in Serie A when he signed for Bologna in the summer of 1988. Rubio was highly-rated at the time of his arrival, but suffered a major injury in a game against Napoli in the Coppa Italia. Upon his return after six months he wasn’t the same player, leaving Italy’s top flight after just a single season in the summer of 1989 when he joined Swiss side St. Gallen.

Serie A has had much more success stories over the following decades. Some players have been flash-in-the-pan successes, while others have left a legacy in the Italian game and enriched it.

Here, we rank the top five Chileans to ever grace Serie A. 

Alexis Sanchez

He would’ve been higher had he remained in Serie A during his peak. Sanchez rose to European fame while part of that brilliant Udinese side at the beginning of the 2010s. He formed a brilliant partnership with Toto Di Natale in 2010-11, but only lasted for a single season.

Sanchez joined Udinese in 2006 but was kept in South America to continue his development. He only played an official game for the club some two years later, becoming part of the main squad from 2008-09 onwards.

Yet it was in his final season at the club that he really made his breakthrough. He scored 12 Serie A goals in 2010-11 and helped Udinese finish fourth and qualifying for the Champions League preliminary round. Only just 22, the bigger European fish circled and Barcelona signed Sanchez in the summer of 2011, denying Serie A the chance to see how far El Niño Maravilla, as he was known, could develop in Italy and a higher place on this list.

He returned to Serie A eight years after leaving, but with his glory days far behind him at that point.

Ivan Zamorano

Considered one of the greatest players in Chile’s history, Ivan Zamorano is beloved at Inter Milan, despite not scoring that many goals. Signed from Real Madrid in the summer of 1996, Zamorano won over the Inter faithful due to his commitment and never-say-die attitude. He won the Uefa Cup with the club in 1998 and formed a strong partnership with Ronaldo in the Brazilian’s first season at the club.

Zamorano’s Inter spell is also renowned for a unique shirt number change. When the club signed Roberto Baggio post-France ’98, the club offered The Divine Ponytail the number 10, which was Ronaldo’s. Ronaldo then took the number nine, leaving Zamorano numberless. However he wouldn’t go quietly, and made the club put ‘1+8’ on the back of shirt, and this becoming the only player in history to have a non-number symbol within his number. 

Arturo Vidal

‘King Arturo’ emerged as one of the best midfielders in the world during his time with Juventus in the early 2010s as part of a superb midfield quartet that also included Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba and Claudio Marchisio. Vidal was a box-to-box dynamo who could score, tackle, press and dribble. 

His years at Juventus represented the best of the Chilean, but they weren’t without controversy, with his nightlife antics becoming a problem for Juve’s management. In the summer of 2015 after four highly-successful years at the club he was sold to Bayern Munich. He later turned up at Inter under Antonio Conte, but he was lightyears away from the brilliant marauding midfielder he had been at Juve, morphing into more of a defensive midfielder who won the ball back and gave it to others.

Marcelo Salas

Arguably Chile’s greatest ever striker. Marcelo Salas spent five years in Serie A with contrasting fortunes. Salas signed for Lazio four months before the 1998 World Cup and it would prove to be a masterstroke from president Sergio Cragnotti, as his performances in France would’ve doubled his fee from the £15m Lazio paid River Plate. 

Salas was a hit at Lazio from the word go. He scored 24 goals in all competitions in his first season in Rome, and won the last ever Cup Winners’ Cup in Birmingham. He played a major part in Lazio’s domestic double a season after, scoring 12 goals in Serie A as the Biancocelesti pipped Juventus to the title on the last day.

This represented his pinnacle in hindsight, as he would never again reach double figures in the European game. Another season at Lazio followed before Juventus brought him to Turin as Cragnotti’s empire crumbled around him and Lazio’s debts accumulated. Salas had been brought in to replace the Milan-bound Pippo Inzaghi, but tore his ACL in a match against Bologna in October 2001 and that was the beginning of the end.

Salas never returned the same player, and Juve loaned him to River in the summer of 2003. He was released in the summer of 2006 after just four goals for the Bianconeri.

Yet the brilliance of his first two seasons at Lazio earn him a place on this list.

David Pizarro

Undoubtedly Chile’s greatest ever export to the Italian game. David Pizarro was one of the most unheralded midfielders Serie A has seen in the 21st century. ‘Pek’, as he was known, came to prominence with Udinese in the mid 2000s before sealing a move to Inter. He was played out of position at Inter Milan and was saved by a switch to Roma to play under Luciano Spalletti, who managed Pizarro at Udinese.

Used at the base of the midfield alongside Daniele De Rossi, Pizarro was adept at operating in tight spaces, possessing seemingly velcro control of a football and being incredibly difficult to read.

He was the engine in the midfield which helped Francesco Totti win the European Golden Boot in 2006-07 as a false ten.

Pizarro won little in Italy, except for a couple of Coppa Italia titles with Inter and Roma, but his performances are what’s earned him top spot here.

A midfielder who deserves much more praise than he received during his playing career. A latter stint at Fiorentina wasn’t as spellbinding, but it’s his performances for Roma that most remember, and it’ll be years before another Chilean steals Pizarro’s crown.