Unlike most Barcelona kids, Ilie Sanchez never dreamed of becoming a professional footballer.

The Los Angeles Football Club midfielder left that to Yuri, his two-year older brother who was considered one of the best players in his age group hailing from Spain’s second-largest city.

“I always tried to do what he did and he chose football,” said Ilie, 31, now in his 14th year as a professional footballer after signing with LAFC as a free agent after five successful seasons for Sporting Kansas City. “More or less it was an opportunity that came my way in life and I just took it.”

By osmosis, by chance, by adoration and emulation, Sanchez went from having fun watching pick-up games in the park to being one of Major League Soccer’s most respected players after joining the game’s elite. American in 2017.

“Ilie was a great person and a great player for this club during the years he was here,” said Sporting KC head coach Peter Vermes, who will coach against Sanchez for the first time when his team travels to the LAFC Sunday afternoon. “He always had a great mentality and attitude. I can’t say anything but great things about him.

“I hope he doesn’t have a good night on Sunday, but I really wish the best for this guy. He brought incredible professionalism to our club.

Thanks to an abbreviated preseason and six regular season games that put LAFC (4-1-1, 13 points) atop the Western Conference standings despite last weekend’s heartbreaking 2-1 loss to the Galaxy , Sanchez’s new head coach, Steve Cherundolo, has seen enough to make equally glowing remarks.

Playing in the middle of the park for LAFC, Sanchez delivered exactly what he promised, Cherundolo noted.

“That’s the best thing anyone can say about me because honestly what I promised was nothing but consistency, trying to be available for selection no matter where. I played, midfield, back line, whatever” Sanchez said. “It’s exactly the same thing I look for in my teammates.”

After half a dozen starts, each lasting until the final whistle, Sanchez seems to have settled in as he influences games as he hoped when he agreed to a two-year contract in the offseason. .

Sanchez chose LAFC because of the quality of the roster and how he imagined he would fit into the group, and his ambition to lift trophies. In five years with Kansas City, he won a US Open Cup and said that record wasn’t good enough.

His experience against the Black & Gold over the previous four seasons, seeing the rabid support in the stands, helped convince him that leaving the Midwest for a place that reminds him of where he was born was the right move.

“You can enjoy being next to the beach and all that goes with that lifestyle, and then you can also hike like I did in the mountains,” he said. “It’s a similarity with Barcelona.”

Like Barcelona, ​​several top football and youth academy programs also exist for boys and girls in Los Angeles, but none come close to the prestige of the programs found in the Catalonia region in the northeastern part of Spain.

Sanchez’s game took big leaps in his early teens when he learned the game at several academies, including FC Barcelona’s famous youth academy, La Masia, where Ilie’s grandfather served as manager.

“This ambition or goal to become a football player came just when a teenager had to decide where to go with his studies and his future plans,” he said. “So it was more or less meant to be, right?”

Along the way, despite being loath to say such a thing, he outplayed Yuri, who played more of an attacking role and faced stiff competition to see the pitch. Yuri eventually put football aside and focused on his studies. He turned to economics and currently lives in Amsterdam to work in this field. So it was Ilie who found a life he didn’t imagine possible when he started.

Without his family to lean on, Sanchez did in Los Angeles what he did in Kansas City by weaving himself into the fabric of the team and the community he cares about.

“Every picture you see with people in the community you can almost guarantee Ilie will be there even if he’s not supposed to be there,” said Scotsman Johnny Russell, Sanchez’s former team-mate and captain of the SKC. “I think that speaks to such an amazing guy that he is.”

Without the Spaniard in midfield, SKC got off to a rocky start, winning just two of seven matches and suffering five defeats.

For Sanchez and LAFC, getting three points requires a “team mindset knowing it’s going to be important for all of us rather than individually,” he said. “And of course knowing that I’m going to have special feelings ahead of the Sporting game. I’ve spoken to people there, not just the players but also the staff. I’ve been there for five years and all that What I have to say is that I have so many friends. The memories that I live with, no one is going to take them from me.

LAFC VS. SPORTSMAN IN KANSAS CITY

When: Sunday, 1 p.m.

Or: Banc of California Stadium, Los Angeles

TV/Radio: ESPN, ESPN Sports / 710AM, 980AM