Alexis Sanchez will miss his mid-winter break this season — last year he used it to go home to Tocopilla in northern Chile and inaugurate five new synthetic grass football pitches he had donated to the desert town where he grew up.

‘This is where I used to play, although not quite in these conditions. It was more a case of rocks for goalposts when I was young,’ Sanchez told the crowds who had gathered to catch a glimpse of him last year.

The donation has made a difference with a youth football league established and more young boys than ever playing the game despite baseball being Tocopilla’s No 1 sport.

Alexis Sanchez celebrates scoring a goal for Arsenal against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday night

Sanchez grew up in Tocopilla, a town in northern Chile, where he used rocks for goalposts growing up

It has been quite a rise to fame for the forward, who is now the man Arsene Wenger can rely on

They are watching too as Sanchez shines for Arsenal, scoring 13 goals in 20 games in all competitions, including the second in their 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday night.

His mother Martina sees every match with friends in the same house where she brought up her son and his four older brothers.

She rejected the chance to move house, but has allowed her son to pay for the home’s extensive renovation, and now she no longer needs to sell fish in the market to scrape a living — a job that once inadvertently gave Sanchez a major career leg-up.

While her son was a 16-year-old playing for the Cobreloa first team in the Copa Libertadores, but still on youth-team wages, she was fined for selling fish without a licence.

Sanchez's first club away from his home country was Udinese, in Italy's Serie A

Sanchez's €25m move to Barcelona in 2011 took him a long way from the dusty streets on which he grew up

Sanchez has played over 70 times for Chile, making his debut in 2006 against New Zealand

Local journalist Mauricio Riquelme says: ‘There was no way the family could pay the $1,000 fine and so Sanchez was put in touch with the agent Fernando Felicevich who bought his registration and settled the debt.’

Felicevich moved the youngster to Udinese in Italy a year later, giving him the big break to Europe that he thought would never come.

It should not be a surprise he has already shown himself capable of carrying Arsenal on his shoulders this season.

They are made tough in Tocopilla where the copper mine, the power plant, and the docks are the limited career options on the contaminated horizon — the air is thick with industrial pollution and the region has abnormally high cancer mortality rates linked to levels of arsenic used in the mining.

Under the guidance of Felicevich, and with loan spells back in Chile with Colo-Colo and at River Plate, Sanchez made the Udinese first team before his €25million switch to Barcelona in 2011.

Sanchez (left) played for Barcelona against English opposition Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League

Sanchez, pictured second right, grew up playing youth football in his home country of Chile

He appeared for Chile at Wembley against England in November 2013, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win

That move to Barçelona fulfilled the dream of Sanchez’s doting step-father Jose Delaigue who by this time had contracted cancer. Sanchez paid for his care and treatment up until his death.

Sanchez was misunderstood at times at the Nou Camp.

He was given the nickname ‘Cachai’ — a Chilean expression which means: ‘know what I mean?’

He used it frequently to team-mates who more often than not, did not know what he meant because of his thick Chilean accent.

And there was a failure to communicate during matches too.

‘He has to have a certain amount of freedom on the pitch to thrive,’ says his former coach Nelson Acosta.

But that was never really afforded him in the shadow of the great Lionel Messi.

Sanchez celebrates after scoring his, and Chile's, second goal in a 2-0 win against England in 2013

Sanchez, pictured bottom second right, poses for a photo in his younger years in Chile

Since joining Arsenal, Sanchez has been hailed for his impressive performances for Arsene Wenger's side

In contrast at Arsenal he is just another Spanish-speaking overseas star in the dressing room and on the pitch the trademark energy has been harnessed.

Sanchez loves to run. One of his Italian adventures at Udinese came when he left his house close to the club’s Stadio Friuli outside the city to drive into the centre on a shopping trip only to lose his keys. A more pampered player might have called his agent to send a car. But whether out of embarrassment or just because he thought nothing of the ‘hardship’, Sanchez ran the four miles home to get a spare set of keys — and then ran back to his car.

He is also famous for failing to recognise AC Milan’s chief executive Adriano Galliani at a publicity shoot — the glitz of modern football’s ‘who’s who’ passes him by.

Sanchez wheels away in celebration after scoring the opening goal against Sunderland in October

Sanchez scored the second goal against Dortmund on Wednesday night to send the home fans into raptures

The big heart Sanchez has shown this season has won over the Arsenal fans in the space of just three months.

He is adored back home too and they will miss his Christmas visit in Tocopilla this year.

There are London derbies against QPR and West Ham to play so there will be no time for a repeat of last year’s trip when he was also driven around the town on a pick-up truck handing out Christmas gifts.

Not everyone is sure about the hero’s welcome he gets every time he returns however.

He now earns more in a month than he would have earned in a lifetime had he not made it as a footballer.

Some of Tocopilla’s school teachers question if it’s a good thing that someone who earns £130,000 a week has become a role model — why work hard at school when you can just grow up and play for Arsenal?

But most see him as a positive example to the youngsters playing on those pitches he has donated.