It’s still not 100% determined what João Palhinha’s future has in store. The Portuguese midfielder has made his return to Munich to report for preseason training for the 2026/27 season after some time off following the end of his loan spell with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. With Roberto De Zerbi at the helm in North London, Spurs have made it clear that Palhinha was not in their plans for the coming season and they’ve brought in Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United and Mateus Fernandes
from West Ham United already to help bolster their midfield.
At Bayern Munich, there also have not been any indications from Vincent Kompany, his coaching staff, or the club’s front office to suggest Palhinha has a future at the club. Even with the departure of Leon Goretzka this summer, it is planned that new signing Nathaniel Brown and Tom Bischof would be seen as the primary midfield backups to Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlović in the center of the pitch for the German Rekordmeister.
As such, Palhinha has been linked with a potential move back to Portugal, most recently for Benfica, who have expressed interest in bringing him in on loan. As far as a permanent transfer for the midfielder, Benfica see his wages as too high and something they would not realistically be able to facilitate, even if he takes a considerable wage cut.
When he was asked at the airport while returning to Munich about his links to Benfica, Palhinha remained tight-lipped about what his near-term future holds. “Now I’m going back to Bayern, as you know. There has been quite a saga surrounding this, but I am a Bayern player at the moment. Benfica? We’ll see. I’m not going to talk, I respect your work, but I don’t want to speak right now. I will return to Portugal at some point, but I don’t know if it’s going to be now,” he replied when confronted by CNN Portugal (via @iMiaSanMia).
Hindsight is always 20/20, but the irony of the airport confrontation coming just three summers after his initial failed move to Bayern from Fulham is palpable. A once highly anticipated transfer to the Bundesliga champions is now left trying to sort out his future in a place where he’ll be guaranteed starting minutes after what was a decent loan spell at Tottenham despite the club just narrowly avoiding relegation to the English Football Championship.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
