England’s trendsetting starlet
A year ago, Jadon Sancho was little more than a bright prospect with a handful of Borussia Dortmund games to his name. In his first major interview, European football’s most feared teenager reflects on 12 “crazy” months of wonder goals, leading the Bundes
Jadon Sancho broke the mould by moving to Germany – it was the best decision he ever made
Jadon Sancho looks utterly perplexed. Lost, even. In the last half hour, he has been shown a ghetto blaster, Polaroid camera and how the cassette and humble pencil will forever be intertwined for the first time. They’re all ancient history for someone born in March 2000, the day before Vladimir Putin was first elected Russian president. Feel old yet? Now, Borussia Dortmund’s teenage tyro is holding a corded telephone – an impressive bulk of plastic and wires, complete with fetching musty-orange hue – and tries to dial a number, pushing in the circular buttons to no avail. Sancho knows it’s a phone, but is it a dud or just further proof of the 1980s’ inhospitable desolation? Keen to stick up for the decade of ankle warmers, New Romantics and, er, Margaret Thatcher, Fourfourtwo offers a hand, inserting a finger into the number seven slot and twirling clockwise, the dial kerchunking back to its original position. “Aw, man,” exclaims Sancho, sounding every bit the excited 18-year-old he is, “that’s LIT!”
Who said that even if a lion could speak, you still wouldn’t be able to understand what it was saying?
Sancho immediately starts playing with his new toy in front of the FFT camera, displaying the infectious, wide-eyed joy only a youngster on the verge of superstardom can manage. Everything is new to Jadon Sancho.
“It only feels like yesterday I was still at school,” the winger chuckles into the phone. He’s not wrong.
In 2018, Sancho “exploded” – his word – from talented teen into the hottest property not just in English football, but throughout Europe. He’s a regular for the team which is top of the Bundesliga, had registered six goals and seven assists in the league alone by Christmas, and has made his senior England debut.
Yet, as the man himself says, there’s more to Sancho than outrageous ability and youthful brio. This is a fighter, someone who made his way from the Kennington estates in south London to the football elite – via Watford and Manchester City – through a mixture of determination and in response to the tragedy of losing his baby brother when he was five. Don’t just take our word for it, either.
“I’ve got great respect for his strong mentality,” said Dortmund captain Marco Reus after Sancho played, and scored, against local rivals Schalke in December, following a difficult week in which his grandmother died. “It’s a big compliment to him that he continued to train, to be focused – and that he managed to smile.”
Nor does he stop smiling in over an hour with FFT in the plush confines of Marbella’s Gran Melia hotel, where Dortmund are on their mid-season break before the Bundesliga restarts.
“Is this really for the cover?” he’d asked before we started shoving vast swathes of plastic in front of him. It is, Jadon, you will be FFT’S youngest cover star since one Lionel Messi in January 2006.
He quickly adjusts his hair in the camera lens’ reflection. No agents, no minders, just Sancho.
“I’d only do this, looking like this, for Fourfourtwo.”
Jadon Sancho puffs out his cheeks, the sigh of a player who is yet to truly face and process their evolution.
“Everyone’s said I exploded in 2018 and, honestly, that’s how it feels,” he says. “It’s been the best year of my life. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be sat here, talking to you now, I’d have thought you were crazy.
“It’s all down to hard work. I know it’s a cliché, but training is where it all starts for me. Try your best in every single session, every match, and take every chance you get.”
If the training session FFT took in a couple of hours earlier is anything to go by, Sancho isn’t joking. For more than 90 minutes, the Dortmund winger sped around the nearby Dama de Noche training complex with frightening speed and verve. Three things stood out.
He bounces, never walks. He dictates an exercise’s entire tempo with a swish of the hips, creating space to shoot from the edge of the penalty area in one attack-vs-defence drill. Finally, whether he’s having a drink, listening to instructions or in the middle of a session, a football is welded to his feet. He sees it, he wants it.
“Since I was a kid, that’s what I’ve done – It doesn’t feel right if I see a ball and don’t touch it,” he says, sitting with his feet tucked beneath his chair as if to perform some restorative stretches. “Years ago, I used to watch videos of Ronaldinho juggling a ball or doing tricks on his way to the training pitch, to help him get a feel for the ball. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’
“It just feels right. You know the video of Diego Maradona back in the day, juggling and dancing before kick-off? I love that. Enjoy your football, that’s it.”
It’s an attitude that has already reaped serious rewards this season. For someone so young to reach Christmas with six goals and seven assists is nothing short of incredible.
“And that’s just in the Bundesliga!” he interrupts. Yet this is no brag – it’s the response of an enthusiastic starlet still unbothered about pressure. How can we tell? His reaction to another mind-bending stat.
In the history of Europe’s top five leagues up to the end of last year, there had been 47 goals and assists provided by players born in 2000 onwards. More than half of them are from English players, and Sancho alone is responsible for 38 per cent.
“What, seriously?!” he replies. Sancho leans forward, his south London twang to the fore. “I didn’t know that. Man, I’m on fire! That motivates me even more. It’s crazy when you say it like that, but I’m just working for the team and trying to do my best for them.
“I’ve got a really good relationship with Marco Reus and Paco Alcacer [providing three and two assists this season respectively]. We just click. Obviously, I analyse their games and know what they like and don’t like, because they tell me on the training pitch and I take it into the matches. Paco’s a funny guy, to be fair, always laughing and joking.”
The squad have taken the youngster to their hearts. During a training ground water break, FFT saw the Spaniard try to nutmeg Sancho from 10 yards away. The kid’s ball-loving attitude is contagious.
Successful, too. Sancho’s direct running in a 3-2 win against Bayern Munich in November was irrepressible, virtuoso stuff. Yes, he’d done it against the league’s lesser lights, but this was different. This was Bayern.
“That was the biggest game so far for us, and for me,” he admits. “We know they’re a huge team, but we didn’t want to let it slide against them – especially at home – because we were still unbeaten at the time. The result speaks for itself. We just had more.” Sancho affords himself the briefest pause. “The gap was six points at the mid-season break, but I was angry, you know, because we lost to Fortuna Dusseldorf in our penultimate game,” he continues. His jaw goes to work on an ever-present piece of chewing gum. “They were third from bottom in the league and I felt like we just relaxed a bit too much. Next time we face them, we owe them. Losing like that was so annoying. But that’s what football’s about – you have to learn from these setbacks.”
He did just that three days later. Motivated by the 2-1 defeat against Dusseldorf, Sancho scored a goal – the opener in a 2-1 win at home to Borussia Monchengladbach – so outrageous it lit up social media to the extent thumbs were worn out at the emoji use. It was a training ground staple – stand up the defender, speed down his outside and finish from an impossible angle.
“That goal was something else,” he says, his studded earrings glinting under our studio lights. Is that all just instinct? “There were quite a few players in front of me, so I had to try a couple of fake shots to work an opportunity,” he explains. “I knew the angle was tight, very tight, but I knew where the goal was in my peripheral vision, and just shot low and hard. Maybe I should have stopped and crossed. I’ve looked back at the video and that was my first thought, ‘You’re dead.’ To be honest, I was almost shocked at it myself.”
The Westfalenstadion erupted, BVB’S notorious Yellow Wall of diehard fans booming out Sancho’s name.
“That goal was where it really hit me,” he reveals. “They introduce you over the speaker with, ‘Jadon…’ and the crowd scream, ‘SAAAANCHO!’ My family were over because it was the last match before Christmas – we went to the markets in Dusseldorf the following day – so it was the full package. Genuine goosebumps.
“That atmosphere is what football’s all about – the passion our fans have is insane. Every. Single. Week. Even when it’s cold. The Yellow Wall is always packed out and singing. When you play, you don’t notice it too much because you’re focused on the game. It’s when you score. Wow!”
It’s all a far cry from August 2017, when people questioned his decision to swap Man City for Dortmund. Pep Guardiola was quick to express his confidence in the then 17-year-old’s ability but admitted, “in the end when they don’t want to stay, there is nothing left to say.” Looking back, the man himself says the choice was an easy one. “Why Dortmund?” he shrugs back to FFT, his eyes widening. “It speaks for itself: youngsters get opportunities. You’ve got to thank Dortmund, because it’s unheard of for a team that gets 80,000 fans at every home game to put so much faith in youngsters. “It was crazy how many clubs wanted me – Spurs among them. It shows how well you’re doing, but I always felt Dortmund was the right club for me.” BVB really pushed the boat out for Sancho. Not least as they reserved outgoing forward Ousmane Dembele’ No.7 shirt for their shiny new signing,
In THE HISTORY OF EUROPE’S TOP FIVE LEAGUES, PLAYERS BORN AFTER 2000 HAD PROVIDED 47 GOALS AND ASSISTS – 38% WERE BY SANCHO
telling future West Ham wideman Andriy Yarmolenko, who arrived three days before Sancho, the Ukrainian’s number of choice was off limits.
“Ha – I was so surprised,” admits Sancho. “At first they offered me the No.9, but in England that’s a centre-forward’s number. They’re both big numbers – and it showed how much the club valued me – but the No.7 felt more like a winger’s number.”
Nothing, however, can prepare you for the first few weeks of living in a foreign country. Everything is different, from obvious issues such as the language to the unique customs which litter everyday life.
“They were really tough,” he says of those early days. For the first time, his voice takes a more serious tone. “Even moving to Manchester from London was tough, but you can do the journey in an hour and a half on the train. And, obviously, you’re still in England, so it wasn’t a huge deal.
“Germany is a whole different level. Knowing I couldn’t speak English going down to my local shop was a big step. I won’t lie, my German isn’t the greatest. I’ve always found it difficult to pick up a new language, but I’m going to do my best.”
Father Sean has moved to Sancho’s Dortmund apartment to help his son acclimatise. So, who does the cooking?
“I have a chef, thankfully,” laughs Sancho Jr, almost embarrassed at the idea. “We need one because my dad can’t really cook and I definitely can’t, so we would starve otherwise! It’s important to be eating the right things at this age.” Not a bratwurst in sight, he eased into a soon-established routine. “I’d train with the senior squad during the week, then play games with the youth team or reserves, which helped me adapt to German football,” he says. Again, he pauses, choosing his words carefully not in case they are misconstrued, but because he wants to answer the question fully.
“They’re so keen to press from the front, that’s the big difference. I’m not saying English teams don’t press, it’s just intense and physical here. You don’t get much time on the ball.”
A reserve-team outing in the third tier here, some UEFA Youth League action there, Sancho got used to his new surroundings. Dortmund held
“OF COURSE IT WAS A BIG RISK LEAVING CITY. I WASN’T GUARANTEED PLAYING TIME AND HAD TO PROVE I WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO FIT In, BUT I FELT THIS WAS THE BEST JOURNEY FOR ME”
some reservations about losing their starlet for the Under-17 World Cup in October 2017, until a compromise was reached that Sancho would feature in the group stage before returning to the club.
It was just as well he did. A week after departing the England camp – more on which later – he achieved a lifelong ambition. Aged 17, Sancho made his senior debut, playing the final six minutes in a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt.
“It was difficult to leave the England lads, but making my Dortmund debut made up for it,” he beams. “It was a dream come true, and a real win-win. I was so nervous. Scared, even. Dembele had just left and the fans were thinking, ‘Who’s this No.7? He must be a big thing.’
“I’ll never forget my first dribble. I tried to take on their full-back, he tackled me and I dropped to the floor. I couldn’t get back up. Welcome to adult football, eh? I thought I had so much time and could do my own thing, then ‘BANG!’ I knew I had to release the ball quicker after that.”
A handful of substitute appearances followed, but it took a change of manager for Sancho to truly flower in Westphalia. In December 2017, Peter Stoger replaced namesake Bosz in the dugout, the Austrian playing a big role in this quickest of learners’ first-team development.
“Peter was the guy who let me get a few games under my belt in the second half of last season, and that made me feel more comfortable at the beginning of 2018-19,” reveals the winger, a warmth to his delivery. “He knew he was only going to be here for half a season, with the sole target of getting us into the Champions League, and because of that he was happy to let us players express ourselves and try things out.
“That’s when I feel most comfortable, when the manager says, ‘go and play, I know what you can do.’ I’m here for a reason, you know? It feels the same with Lucien Favre.”
Dortmund’s Swiss coach has already adopted the role of kindly uncle. During training, he spends time chatting one-on-one with his starlet – who he describes as “something very special” – with an arm around the 18-year-old’s impressively stocky shoulders.
It’s under Favre that Sancho has transformed 20-minute cameos into consistent displays of world-class potential. At no point, though, did he doubt either himself or his decision to move.
“Of course it was a big risk,” concedes Sancho. “I wasn’t guaranteed playing time, and I had to prove I was good enough to fit in with their side. A few people weren’t sure when I first told them about Dortmund – friends and family who maybe didn’t want me to leave England – but I felt this was the best journey for me.
“Just try it, you know? I like trying new things, so it didn’t really faze me. A few asked me, ‘What if it doesn’t work out?’ but I never thought about that. And look at how it’s worked out now, eh?”
Indeed, Sancho’s development is such that he is now the poster boy for British talents swapping Blighty for Europe in search of playing time. Reiss Nelson is enjoying a successful loan from Arsenal at Hoffenheim, while Mason Mount was Vitesse Arnhem’s player of the year last term and Ademola Lookman shone at RB Leipzig. It’s almost inconceivable that Sancho would have made a similar first-team breakthrough had he accepted City’s renewal option 18 months ago.
“I constantly feel I have to prove a point – Germany has pushed me more,” says Sancho, confident and articulate, his assurance and honesty refreshing. “I feel like a trendsetter, because there are other youngsters doing this, but not quite to the level I’ve managed. It’s not just English sides that will give youngsters a chance. There are other clubs out there, you know? They can see what you’ve got and focus on your ability. “I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, but I won’t stop working. I’ve got this far, so now is the time to kick on again.”
Nor is it just Sancho inspiring himself. A ‘Brits abroad’ group on Whatsapp – led by childhood friends Sancho and Nelson, who the former describes as “like a brother” – is a constant source of encouragement. And friendly rivalry. “We’re always telling each other how many we’re going to score,” he jokes. “They’re catching up with us, so we have to! When we beat Bayern 3-2, the group went crazy. It’s like being back in London. You go the extra mile.”
“AFTER A FEW DAYS In RECEPTION CLASS, THE YEAR 5S AND 6S INVITED ME TO PLAY WITH THEM, AS I WAS GOOD ENOUGH”
It’s no coincidence he recalls his Kennington roots. “We rise by lifting others,” is a phrase which has long since united south London players.
Along with Sancho and Nelson, Lookman, the Sessegnon twins, Joe Gomez, Callum Hudson-odoi, Eddie Nketiah and Aaron Wan-bissaka are all from south London and 21 or under.
“I’m not sure we’ll take over the England team,” laughs Sancho, “but everyone has their different path. It would be nice to see a few south Londoners in the England team as we all grew up together.”
Sancho is a product of his environment. Born in Kennington and raised in the area’s Guinness Trust Buildings tenement block, football became an early release in one of the capital’s most densely populated, and deprived, areas. With grass pitches at a premium, Sancho and his pals could often be found on the estate’s adjoining court-cum-cage pitch, which they called Blue Park due to the basketball hoops’ bright poles.
“Straight after school, we’d always be out there playing 5 vs 5, doing tricks and having fun,” he smiles. When Sancho calls up a memory, he has a habit of looking up and to his right, as if picking it off the shelf.
“The rule of the playground was ‘megs’. No one cared about goals as there were so many – you’d restart, restart, restart all the time.”
The Sancho nutmegging anything in sight at Blue Park is no different to the one tearing Bundesliga defences apart every week. His hunger and determination are traits learned at an embryonically young age.
“I’m a street footballer – that’s the best compliment you could give me, actually!” he admits. “That’s where all this came from. Blue Park was just a concrete area, with a fence that looked a bit like the net of a goal. You could say I was out there, pretending to be Ronaldinho.” He was a Chelsea fan as a kid – so why the Brazilian? “He just went past players with this ease,” says Sancho, elongating his final syllable for emphasis. “He did things I had never seen before, even though I was pretty young. Flicking the ball over players’ heads for Barcelona or Milan, making them look tiny next to him. He played football how I wanted to play it.”
It didn’t take the apprentice long to realise he had a bit of his master’s elite ability.
“I first realised I had something different when I was in reception class at primary school,” reveals Sancho, almost matter-of-factly still genuinely surprised at the story he’s about to regale. “Usually nursery and reception kids would play together at break time, but after a few days, the Year 5s and 6s said I could come and play with them because I was good enough.
“I was so small – I would have been about four or five and they’d have been more like 10. To me, these were big people and it wasn’t just then. People would always tell me how good I was, but it never fazed me. The important thing was proving myself in a game and showing what I could do.” Gradually, Sancho’s football became more organised. “Me, Reiss Nelson [right] and Ian Carlo Poveda – who now plays for Man City – grew up together,” he says. “Ian Carlo’s dad, who is Spanish, ran a team in Kennington Park called Latin FC and was really keen for the three of us to try different things with both feet. It helped us. His dad was serious about ball control and playing the right way.”
Sancho and Nelson’s bromance first blossomed at the prestigious 2011 London Youth Games for Southwark Under-11s.
“They were on another level from any of the other players, including academy players,” recalled coach Ahmet Akdag. “It was that ability to glide past opponents like they weren’t there. That ability to play with both feet. The speed on the ball and the speed of thought. The skills to beat players just as quick as them, because they were steps ahead.”
Sancho and Nelson – who grew up just off the Old Kent Road – were the standout pair in Southwark’s cup success and have remained close friends ever since.
“That was the first time me and Reiss played together,” says Sancho. “We knew of each other before that, though we’d never met. We were proper close after winning that tournament. We knew we could help each other out in the future.
“South London means everything. It’s where we both grew up and I’ll never forget where I’m from. But being a footballer is also about trying to show kids from Kennington that there’s more out there than just Kennington. Broaden your horizons and you never know what you might be able to achieve.”
It was around this time that Sancho, who’d been on Watford’s books since he was seven after getting spotted at a development centre in Battersea Park, chose to board at the Hornets’ partner school Harefield Academy. Avoiding the two-hour journey each way from Kennington was good, but boarding school was far removed from south London.
“Yeah, I hated it,” says Sancho. “I’m so close to my friends, and back then I didn’t really know how to socialise with other people, so I kept myself to myself most of the time.
“It really helped me to mature, though, and realise football was all I’d got. I had to focus. Kennington can be a rough area – there are a lot of bad things and distractions around for the kids. Boarding school got me out of that environment and stopped me from being tempted to do things I shouldn’t. It’s just kids being kids, but there came a point when I had to leave for football.”
Watford’s academy was Category Three, which meant funding was low and their league rivals ranged from Stevenage to Barnet, plus the occasional separately arranged fixture against bigger rivals Arsenal. Indeed, it was an outrageous solo goal to defeat the Gunners in such a game which alerted hovering sharks to the Hornets’ big fish, even if, as one Watford coach claims, “Stevie Wonder could have spotted that Sancho would be a star.” Manchester City won the race for the stellar 14-year-old. “At City I knew I wasn’t the best player there, but at Watford I knew, not necessarily that I was the best, but that I had my own style and it worked,” he remembers. “I went to City and was like, ‘Woah, it’s time to step up now.’ “They wanted you to win every single game, whereas at Watford the environment was more about us improving as players. If you didn’t win at City, you knew you’d be out running the next day! That’s their mentality, especially in the youth teams, because of their profile. They had bigger and better players, and I felt like I had to prove a point.” Such a keenness to understand, and improve, the world around Sancho has stayed with him. During his FFT photo shoot, playing on his tender years, he is determined to understand the intricacies of the Polaroid camera and Sony Walkman, even asking, “Shall I help to put it back together?” after we ruin a perfectly good Eric Clapton tape with a pencil in the name of ’80s fun.
Much like that cassette, which will take hours of winding in, things didn’t quite work out at City, but Sancho remains thankful for the education he received there and of the friendship he’s struck with another of his generation’s most talented brethren.
“Oh, Phil Foden is fantastic,” he exclaims. “I love playing with him because I always find him and he