From West Ham’s youth set-up to going pro at the age of 18, the current East London Men’s captain Jonathan Sanchez is a leader in the making and looking to take the UEL football team to another title.
Youth Career
Sanchez explained that the love for football which got him into the West Ham academy at a very young age was inspired by his dad, “I think the passion comes from my dad, he used to take me to training from the age of three.”
From the age of four until 11 Sanchez was a part of the West Ham academy and explained that he, unfortunately, lost some of that love for football once he kept sustaining unfortunate injuries.
Although that spark might have left him, the engrained love for the game never did as he reignited the flame during college:
“[I] found the love again when I was in college and started to take it proper serious… I think where my dad saw so much ability in me, he was always constantly on me, my dad was constantly either taking me to the park or making me sit at home and watch matches.”
Jon’s young career started with him playing up top and he admits himself that as a young kid that was the most desirable position in his eyes, “Everyone wanted to score goals, I think when you are little it’s just about scoring goals.”[laughed]
Despite his desire to play up top, Jon was slowly converted into a centre-midfielder and then into a centre-back where he plays now after being told that he has a great ability to read the game and would be great at doing it from the back.
Playing Pro In Ecuador
In 2018 Sanchez joined the University of East London with plans to study and play football at the brilliant facilities at SportsDock, but a holiday trip to Ecuador changed the course of his plans for the next couple of years.
“I had previously gone to Ecuador on a holiday, I was with my dad, and I just went for a trial, I think it was on a two-week, three-week trial and the manager said to come back in December to do pre-season, so, it was really a choice that I made where I sacrificed.”
In Jonathan’s eyes what he sacrificed was his chance to study and have a plan B in case football fails, as well as having his loved ones around him on a daily basis.
Moving to Ecuador meant he had a lot to learn as his transition into proper independent adulthood came rapidly.
Jonathan talked about how it was a shock to the body once he realised that if he doesn’t make his own food, he won’t be eating and if he did not pay for his bill’s he would not have electricity at his house.
He explained, “It took me like a year, it was rough like getting used to that adult life was rough… everything in my head was jumbled up and football was also in my head and if I had a bad [training] session I would go back home and just think “what did I do wrong?”
Although Jon struggled with things mentally at times, he was in and out of the El Nacional first team while also playing for the reserve squad to stay fit.
His El Nacional reserve squad won the title in 2019 and were top contenders for the title again in 2020 before football in Ecuador and worldwide got suspended due to COVID.
Jon managed to return back home on the day the whole of UK went into Lockdown: “I’ve got a family friend that works in an airport and she managed to get me a ticket to get back [home] and I landed on Monday, the day basically England got locked off.”
Luna
With a lot on his mind and shoulders, Jon needed a companion in this journey of his, so he came up with a plan to get every man’s best friend, a dog. “When I was playing in my first year, I bought myself a little huskie and she was with me the whole journey through the rough, the good times, the everything.”
He named her Luna.
While Jon took time to adjust to the new country, Luna was his best friend and she helped ease his mind once he felt homesick “If I wanted to go out, she would come with me, if I was eating we would eat together, I’m watching a movie she was next to me laying down on the sofa, so, it was just that company that I felt I otherwise didn’t have.”
Unfortunately once Jon returned to England he received the sad news that Luna had run away and he wouldn’t be able to bring her with him back home.
Jonathan now has a half-sleeve tattoo on his left arm in her memory.
Family Life
Jon jokingly described himself as “the spoilt one” when talking about him and his siblings and although his family is a really close group, he often steered away from telling them how he really felt whilst being away, “I didn’t want to put that extra worry upon them so when they use to call me, I would just go “ye everything is fine like I’m good.”
There were a lot of growing pains in Jon’s journey so far and self-admittedly some of it being his pride getting in the way, “I think actually it was a pride thing cause it’s like men shouldn’t be feeling that way, they should be strong… I’m telling you we are as soft as anything else.”
Being away from his family was tough, as it would be for any young man at that age but once you listen and see Jon talk about how close his family is you can see he admires and has something great to say about all of his four siblings and five nephews as well as his parents no doubt.
Future Prospects
Being back in the UK and back around his family, Jon is looking forward to celebrating his first Christmas at home in around three years and is hopeful that the next step in his career will keep him closer to his family this time.
Jon expressed his willingness to stay in university and get his degree but did not seem to be denying a possible jump back into professional football come January time: “[I have] a couple of things rolling for January and it could possibly be in this country.”
