Renato Sanches rebuilding his career for Portugal after flopping at Bayern

Mention the name Renato Sanches to followers of English football and it’s a moment of comedy that springs most readily to mind.

Playing a game at Chelsea during his loan spell with Swansea City, Sanches mistook the red logo of energy drink Carabao on an advertising board for a red-shirted colleague and duly passed the ball straight out of play.

Despite his head-in-hands reaction in the away dug-out, Swansea manager Paul Clement at least had the good grace to wait until half-time before hooking the Portuguese midfielder.

Renato Sanches was embarrassed while playing for Swansea against Chelsea in 2017 when he mistook his red-shirted team-mates for a sponsor logo and passed the ball to it

It marked the low point of an awful loan spell for Sanches as his career went into a nosedive

Swansea manager Paul Clement reacts to the pass on the sidelines at Stamford Bridge

That was November 29, 2017. Just 16 months earlier, Sanches had played a starring role in his country’s unexpected triumph at Euro 2016 and earned himself a £30million transfer to Bayern Munich.

Two months later, he’d left Marcus Rashford, Kingsley Coman and Ousmane Dembele trailing as he collected the prestigious European Golden Boy award.

Now his hugely promising career had plummeted in next to no time to this embarrassing low. No doubt Sanches had to dig out a map to locate Swansea when Bayern dispatched him there. Was he good enough even for them as his form faded?

It seemed a classic case of too much, too young. Sanches was 20 at that point, plagued by injury, desperately out of touch and unwanted by the big club who had moved to sign him even before he dazzled at a major tournament. The sparkle in his game had vanished.

Luckily, that wasn’t the end of the tale. His career trajectory has been heading upwards again ever since he left Bayern for Lille in 2019 and on Wednesday night Sanches scored his first international goal in over four years.

Sanches has rebuilt his career, however, and scored his first goal for Portugal in four years

Sanches slotted home from Cristiano Ronaldo’s assist during the 7-0 win in Lisbon

His confidence has been restored by increased game time after leaving Bayern Munich for Lille

Fair enough, it came against Andorra, one of seven Portugal stuck past the minnows in a friendly at the Estadio da Luz, the stadium of his first club Benfica. But it will certainly do for now.

It seems the lost promise of Sanches has been found again. Back in January, he was being linked with a return to the Premier League with Wolves, that enclave of Portuguese players, off the back of some fine form in France.

If that would have represented a career going full circle – Premier League to Premier League – the real trajectory of Sanches’ career has had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. And he’s still only 23.

The rise had been rapid for the kid Benfica signed as a nine year old from junior…