Renato Sanches accused of lying about age

New Bayern Munich signing has been accused of being much older than what his birth certificate says.

It seems that recently in the sporting world, there are people who want to make sure people are the age they are, to make sure they aren’t lying. Which is perfectly fine and it makes sense to assure that someone is the age they say they are. Sometimes, it could be to cause more attention to that player and maybe even throw he or she off their game and unnerve them.

Well, Portugal youngster and recent Bayern Munich signing Renato Sanches has seen people question his age recently. The Portugal midfielder was born on August 18th, 1997, but according to Spanish newspaper, AS, former French coach Guy Roux says that Sanches is 24 or 25 years old, after he didn’t declare his date of birth until 2002.

However, another Spanish news outlet, MARCA, provided a video of Sanches playing for Benfica’s youth team in recent years. Even though the players do not have their names on their jerseys, you can see a young Sanches with his big, curly afro playing with kids his own age.

Sanches told AS that, “not everything in football is good. There are those who love you and others who don’t.”

This isn’t even the first time that Sanches was accused of being older. When he played for Benfica, rival Sporting Lisbon president, Bruno de Carvalho claimed that Sanches is much older than what his birth certificate says.

Now, this could be true. Sanches does look mature and strong, but maybe he has just worked harder than other people his age and is actually under 20 years old.

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It is hard to justify the claims that Roux and de Carvalho are making. They could just be upset that a player his age is so talented.

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