Jorge Sánchez

Biography

An up-and-down right-back — a tireless worker rather than a showman — Jorge Sánchez came through at Santos Laguna and built a career that took him from Mexican football to Europe: América, Ajax, Porto, where he won the Portuguese Cup, and Cruz Azul, before landing at Greek side PAOK.

His story begins far down. He grew up poor in Torreón, raised by his mother, and as a boy he minded ponies in a park to earn a few pesos. He often recalls spending his first professional paycheck on hamburgers — "the most delicious food" he had ever tasted — an image that captures exactly where he comes from.

In Amsterdam a serious knee injury stalled his progress just as he was settling in, but he picked himself up again, as always. An Olympic bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020 and with more than fifty caps, he offers constant width, commitment and the experience of a player who has simply never given up.

His game is best understood by what doesn’t show up in the stats: the sixty-yard sprint repeated over and over, the timely recovery run on an opposing winger, the pinpoint cross delivered just as the box fills with teammates. His years in Portugal and now in Greece sharpened a polished defensive craft without ever costing him the attacking thrust that set him apart back at Santos Laguna.

At this World Cup he has been a regular part of Mexico’s rotation on the right, contributing his physical output and defensive reading in a Group A that Mexico closed out unbeaten and without conceding a goal. His international experience — built match by match over more than a decade — is exactly the kind of composure Javier Aguirre wants to lean on for a team playing at home under enormous pressure.

Tonight, in the round of 16 against England at the Azteca, his job is the same as ever: run the right flank tirelessly and give English attackers not an inch. Few in the squad have travelled as far — from minding ponies in Torreón to playing a home World Cup — to reach this night.