Erwin Sánchez Freking (born 19 October 1969) is a Bolivian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, currently a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. Dubbed '' Platini'',RELEMBRE O JOGADOR: Erwin Sánchez, o Platini dos Andes (REMEMBER THE PLAYER: Erwin Sánchez, the Platini of the Andes)
Trivela, 18 November 2011 (in Portuguese) most of his professional career was spent in Portugal, amassing

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

totals of 288 matches and 59 goals over 13 seasons mainly in representation of Boavista and Benfica. Retiring in 2005, he subsequently became a coach. From 2006 to 2009, Sánchez managed the Bolivia national team after having appeared as a player in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

, the country's third participation.

Club career

Born in

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; ), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), Pirai River in the eastern Tropical ...

, Sánchez started his career at hometown's Club Destroyers, then moved to Club Bolívar. He was signed by S.L. Benfica for the 1990–91 season, but was not very successful there, also being loaned to

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

neighbours G.D. Estoril Praia. Sánchez joined Boavista F.C. after being released in 1992, eventually becoming one of the team's best players. This prompted a 1997 return to Benfica, but the player again failed to settle, returning to the ''Axadrezados'' (chequereds) and being crucial to the club's only league conquest in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, with nine goals in 33 games. After a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury, Sánchez eventually lost importance in Boavista and left the club in 2004 after a coaching spell, returning home for a final season with Oriente Petrolero and retiring as a player at the age of 36. In his last appearance, on 14 March 2005 against Club Blooming, he assaulted

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

Wilson Aliaga, being suspended for 18 months. Sánchez had another managerial spell at Boavista, as well as two each at Blooming and Oriente Petrolero.

International career

Sánchez was a leading player for

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, being crucial to the nation's

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

. The team exited the competition in the group stage, and he scored their only goal in a 3–1 loss against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

; this was also the country's first and only goal in three appearances in

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

tournaments. Sánchez appeared in a total of 57 matches over 16 years, netting 15 times.Erwin Sánchez – Goals in International Matches
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

He was part of their 1997 Copa América squad, playing all the matches save one for the runner-up hosts and scoring three goals, including in the final with

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. In 2006, Sánchez was named national team manager, being dismissed after the unsuccessful 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

International goals

Personal life

Sánchez's son, also called Erwin, was also a Bolivian international midfielder.

Honours

Player

Benfica *

: 1990–91 Boavista *Primeira Liga: 2000–01 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 1996–97 Oriente Petrolero * Copa Aerosur:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Manager

Blooming *Copa Cine Center: 2015Erwin Sánchez, el desafío de triunfar como técnico donde lo hizo como jugador (Erwin Sánchez, the challenge of making it as a coach where he did so as player)

La Vanguardia ' (; , ) is a Spanish daily newspaper founded in 1881. It is printed in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, also in Catalan. It has its headquarters in Barcelona and is Catalonia's leading newspaper. Despite being mostly distributed in Catalonia, ...

, 2 December 2015 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez, Erwin 1969 births Living people Bolivian people of German descent Bolivian men's footballers 20th-century Bolivian sportsmen Footballers from Santa Cruz de la Sierra Men's association football midfielders Bolivian Primera División players Club Destroyers players Club Bolívar players Oriente Petrolero players Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players S.L. Benfica footballers G.D. Estoril Praia players Boavista F.C. players S.L. Benfica B players Bolivia men's youth international footballers Bolivia men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players 1989 Copa América players 1991 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players Bolivian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Bolivian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Bolivian football managers Primeira Liga managers Boavista F.C. managers Oriente Petrolero managers Club Blooming managers Bolivia national football team managers 2007 Copa América managers Bolivian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Portugal