Bayern Munich is about to remove one player from its payroll: Joao Palhinha is heading back to his home country.
Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, and if you really want to look for signs, the one from the summer of 2023 would actually have been a strong one. Maybe there was a deeper meaning after all to the fact that Fulham couldn’t find a replacement at the last minute. And that Joao Palhinha, despite having already passed his medical exam at FC Bayern, had to turn around and fly back from Munich to London.
The “Holding Six” that then-coach Thomas Tuchel had so desperately wanted didn’t materialize until a year later—by which time Tuchel was already gone and his successor, Vincent Kompany, was implementing a different style of play. Kompany had spoken with Palhinha on the phone beforehand, but when the Portuguese player actually arrived at Säbener Straße for around 50 million euros, it somehow didn’t feel quite as romantic.
Joao Palhinha scored seven goals for Tottenham
Palhinha started once; most of the time he came on as a substitute, and sometimes he didn’t play at all. Then he was sidelined by a torn muscle, and in the second half of the season, briefly by an (excessive) red card against Bochum (2–3). In any case, the now 31-year-old never really found his footing, though things looked a bit different last season during his loan to North London.
While Palhinha fought against relegation with Tottenham Hotspur, his personal stats—45 competitive matches, seven goals, and three assists—were impressive. However, the Premier League club did not exercise the agreed-upon buyout option of around 26 million euros because it could not reach a salary agreement with the player.
Bayern put Joao Palhinha on the transfer list early on
Palhinha returned to Munich, traveled with the team to the training camp at Lake Tegernsee, and went on trips to South Korea and Hong Kong. Although Bayern had long since publicly stated that they absolutely wanted to part ways with Tuchel’s former target player again—this time only on a long-term basis.
A transfer to Aston Villa that was briefly considered did not materialize, and Newcastle United didn’t really make a serious push either. Instead, Palhinha is now heading back to his native Portugal. Benfica is reportedly set to pay a total of around 20 million euros, 14 million of which will be paid up front. Not an outstanding deal for the record champions, but somehow an unavoidable one.
Palhinha is still a strong tackler who can be an asset to a team. He just never really fit in at FC Bayern, which is why his market value hasn’t risen in the past two years, of course. The 37-time national team player is moving, of all places, to the archrival of his former club Sporting, with whom he once won the league title under Ruben Amorim. And Bayern is boosting its revenue this summer to around 50 million euros.