Portuguese midfielder is still one of Barcelona’s priorities

Back in the summer, Barcelona made an attempt to secure the signing of Renato Sanches from LOSC Lille. The Portuguese international was close to completing a move before an injury put paid to his hopes of joining the Blaugrana.

With the January transfer window open, ELEVEN Portugal is now reporting that the Catalan giants have rekindled their interest in Sanches and made him one of their priority signings.

Having burst onto the scenes at SL Benfica, Sanches quickly became one of the most sought-after young midfielders in Europe about half a decade ago. A high-profile move to Bayern Munich followed, but it turned out to be a huge disaster.

The Portuguese midfielder made his way to Lille in 2019 and has been able to rekindle his career since. He played a key role in Les Dogues surprise title triumph in the 2020/21 campaign and made an impression during Portugal’s short stay in the UEFA Euro 2020 last year.

It helped him put himself back on the map, as top clubs started to circle again to sign him up. Barcelona were one of those interested parties. The 24-year-old admitted recently that he was very close to sealing a switch to Catalonia, but the move fell through because of his injury.

Having stayed put in France, he has featured 17 times in all competitions this season, producing a tally of one goal and assist each.

Barcelona are being linked with midfielders of a robust, box-to-box profile of late, with the Catalans being credited with an interest in Denis Zakaria of Borussia Monchengladbach, Liverpool’s Naby Keita and now Sanches.

Even though Xavi Hernandez has a plethora of options at his disposal in the middle of the park, none of them provides the same qualities that the Portuguese international brings to the table.

With eighteen months left on his contract, it will be interesting to see if Barcelona decide to go after him this month itself or decide to wait till the summer when he will be entering the final year of his deal with Lille.