Berlin (AFP) – Euro 2016 winner Renato Sanches says he is considering leaving Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich at the end of the season because of a lack of playing time.
The Portuguese midfielder joined the club as an 18-year-old in 2016 for 35 million euros ($39.9m) — a Bundesliga record for a teenager.
“I’m not happy here,” he told magazine Kicker.
Bayern signed Sanches to great fanfare after he helped Portugal win the European Championship title in France and was voted the tournament’s best young player.
However, he has only ever been used sporadically by Bayern and spent last season on loan at Swansea, where he played only 12 Premier League games after labouring with a leg injury.
Sanches has started just four Bundesliga matches this term under Bayern head coach Niko Kovac.
“I do a lot of work, but I am not allowed to play,” complained Sanches, with Javi Martinez, Thiago Alcantara and Leon Goretzka above him in the pecking order.
Sanches says he must decide “what is best for me. I want to play more, perhaps with another club. I have to give it some thought”.
During the January transfer window, French giants Paris Saint-Germain expressed an interest in Sanches, but Kovac did not want to release him.
