Getty Renato Sanches celebrates scoring for Portugal.
Portugal midfielder Renato Sanches has claimed he was set to move to Barcelona in the summer 2021 transfer window before the move broke down because of injury.
Sanches told La Voix du Nord that he believes a deal to join the Catalan giants had been agreed before he suffered a meniscus problem and ended up staying at Ligue 1 side Lille, as reported by Diario Sport.
“Many clubs were interested this summer, when I sustained the injury, I understood that I would have stayed at Lille,” he said. “It was all done with Barcelona, I think it all collapsed because of the injury.”
Sanches moved to Lille in 2019 after a tough time at Bayern Munich and helped the French side beat Paris Saint-Germain to the league title last season. However, he then underwent a knee operation in August 2021 and was ruled out for at least six weeks.
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Lille Boss Hinted at Barcelona Move
Lille president Olivier Létang opened up on Sanches’s future after the transfer window had closed and admitted he had been given permission to leave. Letang told La Voix du Nord that a “big club” had come close to snapping up the youngster, as reported by Get French Football News.
“It’s no secret that Renato [Sanches] could have gone, he was allowed to leave,” he explained. “We had almost reached an agreement with a very big club, but obviously his knee injury changed the plan. Now, we’re happy to have Renato still with us and we hope that he comes back as soon as possible.”
Sanches initally broke onto the scene at Benfica and was part of the Portugal team that won the 2016 European Championship. The midfielder also won the Golden Boy award, given to the best Under-21 player in Europe, in the same year but struggled to live up to expectations after sealing a move to Bayern.
A move back to France with Lille helped revive Sanches’s fortunes and appears to have attracted Barca’s attention. The Catalan giants were linked with several midfielders last summer, including Dutch midfielder Georgio Wijnaldum, but found their transfer activities limited due to the club’s ongoing financial problems.
Barcelona Spoilt For Choice in Midfield
Barca’s decision not to bring in a midfielder looks a good one in hindsight due to the abundance of young talent at the Camp Nou currently. Senior stars such as Sergio Busquets and Frenkie de Jong have been joined in the squad by teenagers Pedri, Gavi, and Nico Gonzalez.
New coach Xavi is spolit for choice which means he has also told the club to shelve plans to bring in Dutch midfielder Donny van de Beek from Manchester United, as reported by Diario Sport.
Xavi has made it clear that he doesn’t need any more midfielders at the Camp Nou because of the options available and clearly has plenty of faith in the young players who have broken into the first team.
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