In truth, Renato Sanches has been slowly rebuilding his once glittering reputation ever since joining Lille in a £23 million deal in August last year.
His stunning performance in the San Siro last week was no sudden renaissance; instead the result of 15 months of hard work behind the scenes at the Stade Pierre Mauroy.
For the first time since exploding onto the scene in 2016, when a teen sensation won the Golden Boy award and the European Championships while sealing a £35 million move to Bayern Munich within three life-changing months, a man who endured a fall from grace that would make even Charlie Sheen wince is shining at the top level again.
On Thursday night, Sanches produced one of the finest midfield performances seen at the San Siro in many a year.
While Yusuf Yazici dominated the headlines after an iconic hat-trick against a previously unbeaten AC Milan side in the Europa League, Sanches laid the foundations on the night.
It was the sort of swaggering, sumptuous performance that makes a mockery of that horrific loan spell at Swansea City and that ill-fated three-season spell on the Bayern Munich bench.
“Renato? He was huge. He has shown he can play at this level and even higher in the biggest clubs,” Jose Fonte, the veteran defender who has known Sanches since he was an 18-year-old sensation, told PortuGoal after the win in Milan.
“We know him. We must continue to help him. I believe he can have a very, very great career at the highest level. With Lille and with another great team.”
Could that ‘great team’ be the one who have made a habit of accumulating the greatest Iberian talent since adding Jorge Mendes to their speed dial in 2016?
Calciomercato reports that Wolverhampton Wanderers are planning to offer Sanches a second chance in England; the opportunity to silence his critics at last and potentially even replace legendary compatriot Joao Moutinho at the heart of Nuno Espirito Santo’s midfield.
If you judged us all by our lowest ebb, the human race would look like a pretty sorry species.
So it is about time we forgot about Sanches’s decline and instead hail his revival.
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