“He’s an unusual player, sometimes he looks slow, even though he’s not, and he’s got an ability to see moves that no one else sees,” says his Chile national-team manager Claudio Borghi. “He makes passes that are unique.”

He has the physical appearance and demenour of the stereotypical South American attacking midfielder, the classic number ‘10’ that is dubbed ‘The Next Maradona’ every year in Argentina; temperamental, painfully skinny and the customary whirlwind of dark shoulder-length hair mixed with terrific technique, vision and spatial awareness.

I’ve been socially programmed to love players who are tactically disciplined, who track back, who, like good keyboard designers, ‘put in a good shifts.’ I shouldn’t like Jorge Valdivia, as he does none of those things particularly well, but I do.

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