Alexis Sanchez - 6 Facts You Ought to Know about Man Utd's new number 7

Alexis Sanchez finally completed his transfer from Arsenal to Manchester United yesterday in what is certainly one of the biggest businesses of the January transfer window.

It's a move that will please many United supporters but how much do they know of their new number seven? While a few of his personality traits and life story are outstanding, for example, his affection for pooches, others are less so.

6 Facts You Ought to Know about Man Utd's new number 7 - Alexis Sanchez

Here are some little known facts about the former Barcelona forward.

1. Alexis Sanchez first salary was £60 per Month

When Sanchez was 16, he moved to the mining town of Calama, which is 150 miles east of his home town Tocopilla to join Cobreloa - the club where Eduardo Vargas and Charles Aranguiz made their first strides in professional football.

The more seasoned individuals from the squad encouraged him, showed him how to cook and take care of himself. On the the football pitch, he sufficiently demonstrated his abilities in training and youth matches to win his professional debut at age 17, in February 2005.

Deportes Temuco was the first team Alexis Sanchez faced at Estadio Zorros del Desierto in Calama - a stadium with sitting capacity of 12,000. He came on as a 71st-minute substitute in a match that was won 5-4 by Cobreloa. In the wake of breaking into the first team, Sanchez was paid only 50,000 Chilean pesos a month - which is the equivalent of £60. It was an unassuming start to a career that would later see him play in the top flight in Argentina, Italy, Spain and England.

1. He had a tough childhood

Sanchez was conceived in the small city of Tocopilla in northern Chile. His dad left the family when he was young and his mom has to fill in as a cleaner, she sold fish each summer to put food on the table. Sanchez in an attempt to help the family also had to wash cars at the entrance of the city's graveyard.

For Sanchez, it wasn't easy growing up, as his sibling Humberto revealed in an interview published in 2014.

Alexis had nothing when growing up," he clarified. "He had to battle for all that he has. We were the poorest of the poor people... Now and then he was so ravenous he would thump on neighbors' doors and request bread. They would always give him what they had to spare.."

1. Alexis Sanchez first pair of boots was a gift from the local Mayor

Sanchez took in his specialty on the dusty roads of Tocopilla. It rapidly turned out to be clear he had a ton of potential yet his mom lacked the means to provide him with a good pair of soccer boots. His mother had to reach out to Aleksander Kurtovic who was the city’s mayor for help.

My mom went to speak to him to ask whether he could find me some boots as I never quit playing and I wasn't such a terrible player," Sanchez told AS in 2014. "One day he appeared at our home with a couple of football boots. I can't explain how upbeat and excited I was! I couldn't believe it!"

1. His Moniker (El Nino Maravilla) was given to Him by a Chilean Journalist

The man who gave Alexis Sanchez the nickname was neighborhood journalist Jaime Cortes, of the daily paper El Mercurio de Calama.

Sanchez had appeared in training sessions that he was a remarkable player, despite the fact that he was little and thin,"

Jaime Cortes recalled in an interview in 2011.

The day that he debuted, he basically changed the course of the match. That day, calling him La Pequena Maravilla came to me... and it became toward becoming el Nino Maravilla."

1. Alexis Sanchez gives back to the place of his birth

Sanchez is naturally a saint to the general population of Tocopilla, however not on the grounds that they are glad for what he has accomplished in football. He also gives back..

The state of fixtures in the Premier League has made it nearly impossible to do such as of late, but when he was playing in Spain and Italy, he returned home every Christmas to give out presents to inhabitants of the city from an open-top buoy.

Sanchez has additionally paid for the development of football fields in Tocopilla, providing youngsters a place to develop their talent and maybe, in the end, emulate him.

1. Marcelo Salas was a Childhood Idol

Marcelo Salas is best recalled in Britain for his goal in Chile's friendly triumph over England at Wembley in the build up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, however his long footballing career on both sides of the Atlantic started and finished at Universidad de Chile - the club that Sanchez supported while growing up. The buccaneering goal poacher was thus a conspicuous icon for the young Alexis.

In September 2007, Alexis Sanchez got the chance to play alongside the iconic striker as he and Salas both started together in attack in a friendly match for the Chile national side in a 2-0 victory over Austria in Vienna.