Renato Sanches: “Thank God just 45 more minutes of Bayern Munich!”

It was a season of frustrated cries in the locker room, and Bild was all too happy to make sure they saw the light of day. James Rodriguez told everyone and no one, “We’re not in Frankfurt!” and now his former teammate Renato Sanches had a parting locker-room outcry of his own.

According to Bild, before Bayern Munich’s final game of the season, a friendly against SpVgg Lindau on May 29, Sanches gave voice to his feelings as follows:

Thank God, just 45 minutes of FC Bayern left, then vacation and then never, never again!

Vox clamantis in apodyterio!

Alas, Sanches started that match on the bench as well.

Sanches has long been unhappy at Bayern and has expressed his frustration about playing time candidly. Just a week before Bayern’s friendly against Lindau, Sanches had scored against Eintracht Frankfurt in the final regular game of the season, when he replaced an injured Leon Goretzka late in the first half. After that game, he said,

I want to play more. I’m a young player. When you’re young and don’t play much, you feel bad... Of course [Kovac] knows how I feel. But he makes the decisions and I respect that. At the end of the season, though, it’s too late to get more playing time.

Kovac had hoped to rebuild Sanches’ career early in the season, but the erratic results of the Hinrunde left him little room for experiments, and Sanches himself could not displace Leon Goretzka or Javi Martinez from their respective roles. His on-field performances showed great energy but scattered success.

On our fan poll, Sanches was the second player BFW readers wanted to transfer out at 24% of 742 votes, after Jerome Boateng (43%) and ahead of James Rodriguez (19%). Sanches reportedly wants to move to Paris Saint-Germain above all, where he might try his luck with Thomas Tuchel.