There was a time when Renato Sanches was the most sought after prospect in the world.
Now? Not so much.
The lack of impact and progress for Sanches led PSG to make the unconventional move of just terminating his contract and letting him walk away for free per Fabrizio Romano:
While playing for Benfica, Sanches was
a breakout star for Portugal’s at the EURO 2016 tournament. Sanches was also named the tournament’s Young Player of the Tournament, won the 2016 Golden Boy Awards, and made the big move to Bayern Munich that summer for €35 million.
It was quickly evident that Sanches was not going to live up to his lofty billing and be able to break through the club’s loaded midfield in Bavaria. Bayern Munich tried to send him on a loan to Swansea, but that was a disaster. From there, Sanches left Bayern Munich in 2019 for Lille, where he had a decent spell, which lured in PSG to take a swing at unlocking Sanches’ full potential.
It did not work.
Injuries hindered Sanches at PSG and he never found his form, which led to a loan in 2023/24 at AS Roma, Sanches then returned to Benfica on loan in 2024/25, before making the jump to Panathinaikos on loan for 2025/26.
That might have given PSG the opportunity to have seen enough to know that they had seen too much as the Ligue1 powerhouse ended the relationship prematurely.
Sanches is still only 29-years-old and some club will — undoubtedly — take a chance to get the best out of him.
Will this be the time that is works out?
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