Alexis Sánchez: A New Chapter in Montreal
Alexis Sánchez has spent the last few years living out of a suitcase, a superstar drifting between stops that never quite felt like home.
The high-profile move to Manchester United in January 2018 was supposed to be the peak. It became the turning point. Just 45 appearances at Old Trafford, a handful of flashes, and then the quiet exit to Inter, first on loan, then for good. From there, his career turned into a map of Europe: Milan, Marseille, Udine, back to Milan, then Sevilla for the 2025-26 season. Only that 18-goal burst in France truly resembled the Alexis who once terrorised defences for Arsenal and Barcelona.
Now, at 37, he starts again. This time in Montreal.
A last act in the cold
On paper, it looks like the twilight chapter: a two-year deal signed in August 2026, a veteran star heading to MLS, the league that has become the late-career playground for some of the game’s biggest names. But those who know the league, and know Alexis, sense something more than a gentle fade-out.
Bacary Sagna certainly does. The former France international, who made the same journey in 2018 when he joined Montreal after spells with Manchester City and Benevento, believes the Chilean has walked into the right place at the right time.
“He will need to adapt to the cold first! Trust me, it's cold,” Sagna told GOAL, speaking on behalf of BetVictor Online Casino. The laugh comes easily, but the respect is serious. “Alexis Sanchez is a top player. I had some feedback already and people were impressed at his first session, they could see the difference of quality, they could see why he is Alexis Sanchez.”
Those first impressions matter. MLS squads are used to big reputations arriving; they are not always accompanied by big levels. With Sánchez, Sagna insists, the gap between name and performance can still be bridged.
“I think it's very important for him to just enjoy football again and to show why he's been performing for Arsenal, why he's been in the top 20 best players in the world at some point. MLS will notice this soon because he's a top player and I'm pleased to see him playing for Montreal and hopefully he will have a great impact.”
The message is clear: this is not a farewell tour. It is a challenge.
Montreal, not Miami
When players glance across the Atlantic and picture MLS, their minds usually drift to the glamour coasts: New York, Miami, Los Angeles. The billboards, the beaches, the celebrity roll call. Montreal offers something different, and Sagna believes that difference can be exactly what a player like Alexis needs.
“The lifestyle is very good. I think the ecosystem is made for a great family life. It's an amazing country,” he said. This is not the hard sell of a tourist brochure; it is the perspective of someone who stayed.
“I lived there for three years. It's a well-balanced country, you have the seasons and people live well. I was in Montreal, beautiful city. It's a European aspect with U.S. infrastructure.”
That blend matters for a player raised in South America and hardened in Europe. The city feels familiar yet fresh, cosmopolitan but calm. Even the winter, which outsiders treat like a warning label, becomes part of the appeal.
“Even winter, I mean I love the sun but I enjoyed winter there because I could go walking for two hours on the snow in the park with a hot chocolate and it grounded you. I think not many places are like that today in the world we live in today.”
Grounded. It is not a word often associated with the Alexis who swapped Arsenal for United amid piano unveilings and giant expectations, but it might be exactly what he needs now.
“It’s amongst the best places to live - Montreal was in the top five of the best places to live in the world at some point. It’s fun, the vibe is good, people are happy and it's a nice country. Also, people speak both languages, French and English, and you have a big Spanish community being in North America also.”
For a Chilean icon with a global career behind him, it sounds like a soft landing. The question is whether that comfort can coexist with the edge that once made him one of the most feared forwards on the planet.
Chasing the Messi standard
Alexis does not arrive in a vacuum. The bar for ageing superstars in MLS has been reset, and it has a very familiar name.
Lionel Messi, his former team-mate at Barcelona, has turned his own late-career adventure into a phenomenon. The Argentine, now 39, remains brutally efficient. Alexis has just seen that up close: Messi scored four of Inter Miami’s seven goals in a crushing win over Canadian opposition at Nu Stadium, a reminder that even in his late thirties he can still rip games apart almost at will.
That performance is both inspiration and pressure. If Messi can bend the league to his will, what can Alexis still offer? He is not the same player, not the same profile, but the expectations around global stars crossing the Atlantic have shifted. Coasting is no longer an option.
Montreal’s two-year commitment gives him time. Time to adjust to the cold, to the travel, to the rhythm of a league that can be deceptively intense. Time to rediscover the sharpness that flickered in Marseille but has too often gone missing elsewhere. Time, most of all, to enjoy himself again.
Sagna is convinced that enjoyment is the key. Not tactics, not systems, not marketing plans. Just a player reconnecting with the reasons he fell in love with the game.
If that happens, Montreal will not just have signed a name. They will have landed a force, one last surge from a player who once sat comfortably among the world’s best.
The league has already seen what a motivated Messi can do in his late thirties. Now it waits to see whether Alexis Sánchez, in the snow and noise of Montreal, can write a final act to match the weight of his name.
