Alvyn Sanches: itinerary of the last crack of Lausanne-Sport

Alvyn Sanches digs into his memory. He digs, he digs, but he can’t find the name of this former coach that he appreciated so much. “It’s because at Team Vaud, we all called each other by nicknames,” he slips, with the surname of this trainer on the tip of his tongue. Nicknames? “Yes! We were a great team. We won almost all our matches, we got along well. Mine was Shrimp.”

Long before exploding with Lausanne-Sport in the Super League, Alvyn Sanches was Crevette. A nickname inherited from this size that he has had time to thicken since. “That’s thanks to the club’s physical trainers.” Even if, at 21, the young man remains one of those players who sneak more than they push. “Off the field, he went unnoticed. It was something else as soon as he touched a ball,” remembers Muamer Zeneli, his coach in FE12, a few years before he was given his nickname.

Acrobatic flips at 12 years old

The technician kept an old YouTube video handy. We see the young people of Lausanne defending the colors of Switzerland during an international tournament in Marrakech. Among them: 12-year-old Alvyn Sanches, who can be seen scoring. With an acrobatic return. Nine years later, his showmanship is intact. And the entire Swiss public benefits from it.

The child was discreet, reserved and blessed with a gift for football. The adult he has become has not changed. Except perhaps that he is working to transform this gift into a force capable of taking him to the very highest level. “It’s true that with Sport Lausanne Benfica, where I started football, we won with big scores, I scored a lot. And in the neighborhood, the grown-ups tended to say that I was the local gem,” he says quietly, almost embarrassed to bring up these flattering memories.

The neighborhood is the Boveresses. Lausanne Public Transport could consider installing a direct bus line there with La Tuilière, as the place serves as a talent pool for the city. It was there that Isaac Schmidt, now a full-back for Leeds in 2010, grew up^e English division. But also Cameron Puertas, five years older than Alvyn Sanches, who became both a source of inspiration and a big brother to him.

Win to get the tour

“We arrived at the field at 2 p.m., often to stay there until the evening. We all played together, without age categories. The selection was made by level,” remembers the man who arrived in the neighborhood during his first months of life, he who was born in France to two parents of Cape Verdean origin. “It was fun football. Still with a little competitive side. We liked to put a prize on the line. Like making the losers pay for drinks.”

It is undoubtedly on the grounds of Boveresses that Sanches and Puertas, who left this summer for Saudi Arabia for 15 million euros, developed above-average footballing spontaneity. Once the ball is at their feet, nothing ever seems set in stone. Beyond a friendship that still holds, a surprising common point unites the two friends: they both could have become goalkeepers.

“The day I took the entrance tests for Lausanne-Sport, we ended training with a penalty shootout,” recalls the main person concerned. Since I had a pair of gloves at the bottom of my bag, I finished on goal. And… it went pretty well. I joined the team and I alternated half-time as a goalkeeper, half-time as a field player. Vaudois fans can thank the mother of their number 80, who preferred to see her son score goals rather than receive balls in the head.

“Alvyn still plays like he did in FE12: to play, to have fun,” observes Muamer Zeneli. When the name of his coach nine years earlier is whispered to him, Alvyn Sanches cannot hold back a smile. “We had two coaches. Muamer was the stricter of the two.”

The thirty-year-old, now a player for FC Bavois in the Promotion League, smiles. “We had to tickle him. As we would have done with any player above the rest. So we gave him challenges. Particularly that of scoring with your right foot. And if he kept getting back on his left foot to strike, I had to react and point it out to him.”

A quality sponge

Alvyn Sanches will eventually leave Lausanne-Sport for a better club. Given the level at which he is currently playing, there is very little doubt about it. The Olympic capital’s path to the next level has already been generously plowed by its talented predecessors. The young man seems to have sucked a little of everyone’s strengths, as if he is preparing to become the epitome of players who have recently exploded at LS.

In his game, we can find the unpredictability of Cameron Puertas. A bit of Dan Ndoye’s technicality. All the carefreeness of Zeki Amdouni, too. “We each have our own personality. I wish I could say I’m as calm as Zeki on the field. I’m not sure that’s the case, but I try to take inspiration from him.” He doesn’t say it, but his doubt perhaps refers to his start to the season, during which he admitted to having been upset by a possible departure. Which ultimately did not exist.

Whether he was taken by the club or himself, the bet to stay in Lausanne for a few extra months is paying off big for everyone. In a wink that pleases him, it is Servette who is traveling to La Tuilière this weekend. The same club against which he had scored his first professional goal two years earlier, a day when Zeki Amdouni had shown him the way by scoring a hat-trick. When he turns around, Alvyn Sanches still has the past on his side.

1,500 Servettians expected at La Tuilière on Sunday

Loïc Luscher, communications manager for Servette FC, is categorical. Of the eleven trips that the Super League offers to Geneva supporters, the one that leads to Lausanne remains by far the most popular. Proximity, tradition and antagonism oblige. On Sunday, some 1,500 garnet supporters will line the spans of the Tuilière, as is now the case on every trip.

The few thousand tickets included in the package reserved for visitors were easily sold by Servette FC. Several hundred other spectators from the end of the lake are expected to provide colorful and acoustic reinforcement. Lausanne-Sport logically suggests that they target sectors C1 and C2, adjacent to the ultras pit. In short, more than enough to heat up one of the four corners of the stadium.

Given the incentive context and the form of the two teams, will La Tuilière go so far as to post an exciting sellout? “We are not safe from stocking up, if people get a little angry between now and Sunday,” hoped Friday afternoon Vincent Steinmann, vice-president of the LS. The bar of 8,000 tickets sold had just fallen, out of a total of 12,500.

A five-figure attendance is therefore expected, which could constitute a new record. Of the five Lake Geneva derbies contested so far in the new Lausanne venue, including two during Covid, the most followed was that of November 28, 2021 (3-0 for Servette), in front of 10,037 souls. That of December 9 (1-1) attracted 9,237 spectators. And attracted its share of various excesses between supporters of the two camps and the police.

“All measures are put in place in order to be able to manage things as best as possible and avoid clashes,” says Vincent Steinmann. I dare to hope that the extreme tension which reigned between the ultras last time will have subsided. That day, there was a lot of intensity on the pitch and in the stands. This Sunday, we all want to attend a football celebration, in a beautiful atmosphere.” May the Servettians contribute worthily to this, eleven as well as 1500. Simon Meier

Florian Vaney has been a journalist in the Sport-Center editorial team since 2019. Trained in the regional press, he closely follows Swiss football, from the “bank” divisions to the Super League.More info

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