Renato Sanches is a Portuguese midfielder who plays for Ligue 1 club Lille and Portugal National team.
Sanches, adorably known as ‘Bulo’ by his grandmother, started his first step in his footballing world by joining the Benfica youth team. He was promoted to the senior team when coaches saw his exceptional talent.
He became a powerhouse for the Portuguese team and Sanches helped Benfica win the Taca da Liga and Primeira Liga in 2016.
Floodlights opened for him after his stint at the Portuguese club as the Bavarian giants, Bayern Munich were able to secure his signature for €80 million pounds, making him the most expensive player to leave Primeira Liga.
He won the golden boy award ahead of Marcus Rashford at the age of 21. He left the Bavarian Giants to go on loan and join Swansea in 2017, and he returned to Bayern the following year.
However, as the competition for midfield spots was too high, Sanches decided to head to LOSC Lille, in 2019 on a 4 year contract.
There he dominated the midfield, and he soon became their go-to man for the big games.
Even Though Sanches has been dry in front of the goal, he has made up for it by assisting other teammates to find the net.
He has 5 assists to his name, even though he has dried up in front of goal, contributing only 1 goal in the 2021/22 season.
He is amazing with the ball, as his shot-creating actions and goal-creating action actions are 97 and 99 percentile respectively. He falls into the first quadrant.
He is creating a storm in Ligue 1 as he is able to drift past players at ease. He ranks 99 percentile in dribbles success rate.
‘Bulo’ has a specific eye for gold as he has made dangerous passes for his teammates to score goals.
Sanches has a knack for whipping passes and crosses into the 6-yard box. The performances which he showed in his youth and senior club, he is doing that in his Ligue 1 club.
Sanches has most of his ball touches in the middle of the park with a total of 40%. He has also a total of 8% of touches in the attacking middle third.
Coming to his pass distribution, he has made a total passes of 1418 passes, out of which 631 were successful passes when 767 passes were attempted. He has made a total of 129 defense splitting passes(key Pass and Progressive pass). He has dunked the ball into the 1/3rd area of the pitch 78 times and 26 times he had put the ball into the danger zone.
Coming to his defensive contributions, he has won only 7 aerial duels and lost 9 of them and he has a win% of 43.8%. He tracks back and helps his fellow teammates. Out of 20 tackles he made, he has won 13 of them. He won most of them in defensive 3rd and Attacking 3rd. He made 11 interceptions and made 7 goal line clearances.
Renato Sanches had made 54% pressures in the middle 3rd, he had applied a total of 106 pressures in that area. 27% in defensive third and 19% in attacking third. He has made 198 pressure, out of which he was able to successfully dispossess his opponents 67 times.
Renato Sanches’ scintillating performances this season have placed him on the transfer radar of Italian Clubs and also a team from Premier League. Roma are interested in acquiring his services, but they face stiff competition from Milan and Juventus. The Giallorossi have already signed Sergio Oliveira from FC Porto, and to make their manager Jose Mourinho happy, they will try to get their man.
Juventus are looking to bolster their midfield since Rodrigo Bentancur and Aaron Ramsey departed in January, and AC Milan are searching for reinforcements, especially as Franck Kessie, their main midfield lynchpin is expected to leave at the end of the season for Barcelona.
According to famous Journalist Fabrizio Romano, ‘Bulo’ is liked by Liverpool. They will look to get Florian Neuhaus and Sanches to bolster their midfield option. Where he ends up next summer, he will surely dazzle everyone with his goals, assists and skills. Watch this space.
