Alexis Sánchez is a Chilean professional footballer who represents the Chile national team as a striker. Nicknamed El Niño Maravilla ("The Boy Wonder"), he made his debut for his country in a 1–0 victory over New Zealand in April 2006. His first international goal came on his eighth appearance for Chile when he scored Chile's only goal in a 1–2 defeat to Switzerland in a friendly tournament in Vienna. , Sánchez is his country's top scorer and also has the most caps, with 51 goals in 168 appearances. He passed the previous record of 37 goals, held by Marcelo Salas, when he scored the opener against Germany in the group stage of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in June 2017. Sánchez's most recent goal came against Paraguay in a 3–2 friendly win. Despite Sánchez scoring seven goals, making him second-equal top scorer in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying (along with Lionel Messi, Gabriel Jesus and Felipe Caicedo), Chile failed to qualify for the finals. Sánchez made his most recent and 168th appearance for Chile in a 0–2 World Cup qualifying loss against Bolivia in June 2025.
, Sánchez has not scored an international hat-trick, but has scored twice in a match on ten occasions. Sánchez has scored more goals in friendlies than in any other format with 21, followed by FIFA World Cup qualifying matches with twenty. He has scored two goals in FIFA World Cup finals, seven in the Copa América and one in the Confederations Cup. He has scored more goals against Uruguay and Bolivia (six each) than any other nation, and more times at the Estadio Nacional de Chile (ten) than any other stadium.
Goals As of 27 March 2023 Scores and results list Chile's goal tally first.
+ International goals by cap, date, venue, opponent, score, result and competitionCapDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition 1 8 7 September 2007 Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria 1–1 align=center Friendly 2 11 4 June 2008 Estadio El Teniente, Rancagua, Chile 1–0 rowspan="2" align=center 3 2–0 4 19 11 February 2009 Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane, South Africa 2–0 align=center 5 20 28 March 2009 Estadio Monumental "U", Lima, Peru 1–0 align=center 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification 6 23 10 June 2009 Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile 3–0 rowspan="2" align=center 7 4–0 8 24 12 August 2009 Brøndby Stadium, Brøndby, Denmark 2–1 align=center Friendly 9 28 26 May 2010 Estadio Municipal de Calama, Calama, Chile 1–0 rowspan="2" align=center 10 2–0 11 29 30 May 2010 Estadio Municipal de Concepción, Concepción, Chile 2–0 align=center 12 34 17 November 2010 Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile 1–0 align=center 13 37 19 June 2011 4–0 align=center 14 39 8 July 2011 Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza, Argentina 1–1 align=center 2011 Copa América 15 57 11 June 2013 Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2–0 align=center 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification 16 58 14 August 2013 Brøndby Stadium, Brøndby, Denmark 2–0 rowspan=2 align=center Friendly 17 3–0 18 61 11 October 2013 Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez, Barranquilla, Colombia 2–0 rowspan=2 align=center 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification 19 3–0 20 62 15 October 2013 Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile 1–0 align=center 21 63 15 November 2013 Wembley Stadium, London, England 1–0 rowspan=2 align=center Friendly 22 2–0 23 68 13 June 2014 Arena Pantanal, Cuiabá, Brazil 1–0 align=center 2014 FIFA World Cup 24 71 28 June 2014 Mineirão, Belo Horizonte, Brazil 1–1 align=center 2014 FIFA World Cup 25 76 14 November 2014 Estadio CAP, Talcahuano, Chile 1–0 align=center Friendly 26 77 18 November 2014 Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile 1–0 align=center 27 83 20 June 2015 Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2–0 align=center 2015 Copa América 28 87 5 September 2015 3–2 align=center Friendly 29 88 8 October 2015 2–0 align=center 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification 30 89 13 October 2015 Estadio Nacional de Lima, Lima, Peru 1–0 rowspan=2 align=center 313–2 32 98 14 June 2016 Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, United States 3–1 rowspan=2 align=center Copa América Centenario 33 4–2 34 99 18 June 2016 Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, United States 3–0 align=center 35 106 15 November 2016 Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2–1 rowspan=2 align=center 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification 36 3–1 37 108 28 March 2017 Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile 1–0 align=center 38 112 22 June 2017 Kazan Arena, Kazan, Russia 1–0 align=center 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup 39 118 5 October 2017 Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile 2–1 align=center 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification 40 123 16 November 2018 Estadio El Teniente, Rancagua, Chile 2–3 align=center Friendly 41 124 20 November 2018 Estadio Germán Becker, Temuco, Chile 3–1 align=center 42 125 17 June 2019 Estádio do Morumbi, São Paulo, Brazil 3–0 align=center 2019 Copa América 43 126 21 June 2019 Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador, Brazil 2–1 align=center 44 133 8 October 2020 Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay 1–1 align=center 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification 45 134 13 October 2020 Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2–1 align=center 46 137 3 June 2021 Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, Santiago del Estero, Argentina 1–1 align=center 47 143 11 November 2021 Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, Paraguay 1–0 align=center 48 146 1 February 2022 Estadio Hernando Siles, La Paz, Bolivia 1–0 rowspan=2 align=center 49 3–1 50 150 27 September 2022 Franz Horr Stadium, Vienna, Austria 1–0 align=center Friendly 51 153 27 March 2023 Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile 2–2 align=center
Statistics
+ Appearances and goals by year Year Goals 2006 5 0 2007 4 1 2008 9 2 2009 9 5 2010 7 4 2011 11 2 2012 8 0 2013 11 8 2014 13 4 2015 14 5 2016 15 5 2017 13 3 2018 5 2 2019 8 2 2020 4 2 2021 8 2 2022 8 3 2023 8 1 2024 6 0 2025 2 0 Total 168 51
+ Goals by competition Competition Goals Friendlies 21 FIFA World Cup qualifiers 20 Copa América 7 FIFA World Cup finals 2 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Total 51
+Goals by opponentOpponentGoals66333322222221111111111111 Total 51
See also List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals List of top international men's football goal scorers by country List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps
References