Robert Sanchez’s rise through the goalkeeping ranks has been anything but typical.
He would swap Spain for Sussex as a schoolboy, signing for Brighton as a 15-year-old, in a move that these days would likely get scuppered by post-Brexit regulations.
This teenage leap of faith would lead to a climb up through the divisions and prove to be the making of the Spaniard.
Sanchez on his rise through the ranks
“I was 14, turning 15, and had the opportunity to go to Brighton, just to try the place, and for them to see me in person,” Sanchez tells FourFourTwo of his decision to leave Levante for an initial trial at the then-Championship side.
“I impressed them, and they loved me. I enjoyed everything and just made the decision. Mum was happy, dad was happy. We decided to go along with it.”
After playing for the club’s under-18s and under-23s sides, a series of loan moves up through the EFL began. This started with a half-season spell at League Two at Forest Green Rovers, followed by a stint with Rochdale in the third tier for the 2019-20 campaign.
At first, he was reluctant to head out elsewhere on loan. Critics have described the reserve pathway as an incubated environment in which academy players are left unprepared for the rigours of men’s football. Is it any wonder, then, that leading lights at that level believe themselves capable of making the step up when they aren’t quite there yet?
“After three years, I’d trained plenty of times with the first team and felt like a first-team player, even though I wasn’t really at the time,” he admits. “I felt comfortable at Brighton. It felt like home.
“I just wanted to stay there and, hopefully, would end up playing for the first team, but that’s where having the right people around you helps, with my agent and the goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts, who’s now with me at Chelsea. He knew what I really needed, which was to go on loan, to get hit, to feel the pressure and play with men. He pushed me to go on loan and experience that.
“I didn’t really want to go, but after those two years, I really appreciated going and experiencing everything. It completely changed me as a player. Mostly it was experience, learning what professional football was like, making decisions, knowing that you’re going to get hit, that you’re going to make mistakes and you have to bounce back. You’re going to get booed in games, and you’re going to be under pressure.”
This pressure would sometimes lead to errors, something that Sanchez doesn’t shy away from and all part of the process.
“They helped build me into the player I am today,” he continues. “Like every player, you go through times of struggle.
“I don’t know about other players, but for me, when I go through down times, my goal is always to bounce back even better than I was before, and that’s what I’ve always done. That was the beginning of it, really.”
