Udinese knew about Alexis Sánchez long before he had been called up to play for the Chilean national team. It knew about him before he had played in the Copa Libertadores, before the rest of South America discovered him and before he had caught the acquisitive eyes of Europe’s biggest, richest teams. There is a chance that Udinese knew about Sánchez even before, on April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim stood outside the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, filming himself for a website he had helped to launch. “The cool thing about these guys,” Karim said, correctly, “is that they have really, really, really long trunks.” It may not have been David Attenborough, but it was the first video uploaded to YouTube. And it would, ultimately, be possibly the most significant event in Udinese’s modern history.

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Persons: Alexis Sánchez, Jawed Karim, ” Karim, David Attenborough Organizations: Udinese, Chilean national, Copa Libertadores, San Diego Zoo, YouTube Locations: South America, Calama, Chile’s, Atacama