Southgate faces battle to keep lid on Sancho hype
18 years and 201 days. Sancho is the second youngest England player to win his first cap in a competitive game. The record is held by Duncan Edwards who was 18 years and 183 days old when he played against Scotland in 1955. 209Sancho is the first outfield player to appear for England while playing outside the UK since David Beckham (LA Galaxy) in 2009.
AS you would expect of Gareth Southgate, plenty of thought and some background checks were done before thrusting 18-year-old Jadon Sancho into the very public spotlight of playing for England.
‘We’ve spent a lot of time talking to other youth coaches to get a good insight into his personality and how he is,’ said Southgate after watching his 21st Century boy introduce himself to a wider audience by making his debut against Croatia on Friday night.
You would assume one of the chats took place with FA under-21s coach Lee Carsley, who was Sancho’s youth-team coach at Manchester City.
Carsley’s philosophy on young players chimes with Southgate. ‘You don’t need the kind of arrogance of being in a new car, windows down, stepping out in your sunglasses. It’s more that inner arrogance — a trait in all the top players,’ said Carsley.
Once Carsley had given Sancho a character reference, you can imagine Southgate was content.
It is sensible for a manager to do his research in this day and age. Sancho’s number of Twitter followers swelled to 63,000 in the hours after winning his first cap and those big numbers bring a responsibility for any teenager new to the public eye.
‘I knew he was ready because we wouldn’t have put him into that game unless we knew that. So I guess now we’ve just got to keep a lid on it,’ smiled the England manager, aware there is little chance of that given Sancho is also impressing in the Bundesliga and Champions League for Borussia Dortmund following his move from Manchester City in 2017.
‘I’ve had a little bit of time with Jadon when he was an under-15. He’s actually quite a quiet lad around the place but, of course, he’s very confident on the field and he showed that belief in his spell on Friday.
‘I don’t think it’s so relevant whether he starts or is a sub in terms of the impact he’ll have. I just think that’s part of him gaining strength in the game and an understanding at Dortmund of how they’re playing. Then, with us, just easing him into the way we play and the environment. The Champions League games he’s had, he’s had a really good impact as well.’
Sancho was born in the same hospital as Rio Ferdinand, King’s College in Camberwell, south London. He grew up in an estate by the famous Walworth Road in Kennington and moved on his own, aged 12, into digs so he could be closer to Watford, a club he’d first joined at seven
He signed for City aged 14 and thrived under Carsley. He was one of the members of their FA Youth Cup side that reached the final before losing to Chelsea. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak even namechecked him alongside Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz as first-teamers of the future.
But the independent kid from the capital city, whose speed and dribbling marked him out as special, was concerned at the club’s well-publicised pursuit of Alexis Sanchez for his position on the left flank.
While Foden and Diaz signed new deals, Sancho held firm. City left him out of a preseason tour of America, Sancho was reported to have skipped training in retaliation, City refused to sell him to another English club, so he joined Dortmund in an £8million deal on deadline day.
The tit-for-tats grew that messy he’s unlikely to ever consider returning to The Etihad though he remains friendly with his many of his former team-mates.
Though mainly used as a sub by Dortmund, he already has six assists this season and the club top the Bundesliga. He is in the full England squad while under-17 World Cup-winning team-mate Foden isn’t.
‘It’s been a brave decision by him to play in the Bundesliga,’ said Southgate last week. It’s no coincidence he shares an agent with Everton’s Ademola Lookman and Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson, also south London youngsters who have sampled the German game.
City may learn to regret losing Sancho but there’s no doubt the club helped develop his character too. ‘All the little standards, putting your plate away at dinner, shaking hands with the coach,’ said Carsley in an interview with ESPN.
By coming on in Rijeka, Sancho is in the record books forever as the first England player born in this century. At 18 years and 201 days, he is also the second-youngest to make a debut in a competitive match after Manchester United great Duncan Edwards.
Sancho was starved of the ball for the first few minutes but when his team-mates did find him, he played with a poise and ambition beyond his years, discomforting the Croats with his strong, direct running. He is now pressing for a place in the starting lineup against Spain tomorrow.
Southgate also took heart from the performance of Leicester’s Ben Chilwell, who made his full debut in Rijeka. Sancho, Chilwell and Chilwell’s club-mate, James Maddison, are all part of the new breed Southgate is looking to as England seek to build on their World Cup success.