This should end the allegations.
Renato Sanches was accused of lying about his age earlier this week by a veteran French manager. Guy Roux, who coached Auxerre between 1961 and 2005, claimed that the player is not 18-years-old but “23 or 24.”
“He says he’s 18, but I think you should look at the past,” the 77-year-old said.
“His date of birth was declared years after as it was never originally indicated to the registry. I can assure you that he is 23 or 24-years-old.”
Sanches will join up Bayern Munich after Euro 2016, after agreeing a transfer worth an initial €35m (just shy of 30m quid in real money) from Benfica. His date of birth is registered as August 18 1997, but Roux claimed his birth wasn’t registered until five years after his birth.
However, it appears as though Roux’s claims are baseless.
A video has emerged of Sanches’ first interview as a youth team player with Benfica, filmed in 2010, and the midfielder certainly doesn’t look to be the age Roux is claiming.
If Sanches was “23 or 24” he would be 17 or 18 when the interview was filmed, rather than 13-years-old.
