Bundesliga
“Sanches is often the best player in training!” – Süle
Niklas Süle has been full of praise for his Bayern Munich teammate Renato Sanches, lauding the Portugal international’s ability and efforts in training.
“He hasn’t had it easy here but he has seriously upped his game and is often the best player in training,” Süle said of the midfielder, who turned 22 just two days after Bayern opened the new Bundesliga season with a 2-2 draw at home to Hertha Berlin.
A UEFA European Championship winner with Portugal in 2016, Sanches joined the record German champions from Benfica the same year and won the prestigious Golden Boy award for Europe’s best young player. He has since made over 50 competitive appearances for the Munich club but struggled to nail down a place in the team.
The 18-time Portugal international has featured in all three of Bayern’s matches this season across the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Supercup but is yet to complete 90 minutes and has stated his desire to play more.
Watch: Sanches: "Happy when I play football"
Süle, however, is confident the midfielder will get more game time thanks to his impressive displays in training. “He’s a player who can make the difference. Every young player needs playing time to develop and I believe he’ll get that here.
“Of course there are a lot of world-class players here at Bayern and the competition is fierce. He has to perform in a way that the coach can’t ignore.”
Bayern have added midfield reinforcements during the summer transfer window with the arrivals of Philippe Coutinho from Barcelona and Michael Cuisance from Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Sanches, though, will view Saturday’s visit to Schalke as a chance to stake his claim at the head of the queue in the centre of the park as he returns to the ground where he made his Bundesliga debut back in September 2016.