Benfica sells teenager Sanches to Bayern for $40 million

LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Benfica is selling 18-year-old midfielder Renato Sanches to Bayern Munich for 35 million euros ($40 million), with the Bundesliga champion possibly spending an additional 45 million euros depending on performances.

Sanches' contract and agreement on meeting unspecified performance targets runs through June 2021, the Portuguese club said in a statement to the Lisbon stock exchange on Tuesday.

Sanches came through Benfica's junior ranks, and made his first-team debut in the Portuguese league last October. He has 59 appearances, two goals, and earned broad acclaim. He made his Portugal debut in March, and has two caps. He's a chance to be in the Portugal squad for the European Championship next month.

He "rates as one of the most talented young players in European football," and there was "big-name international competition" to sign him, Bayern said in a statement on its website. It said he passed a medical in Munich on Monday.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the club had been following Sanches for a long time.

"Renato is dynamic, a good tackler, and a technically skilled midfielder who'll add even more strength to our team," he said.