JADON SANCHO REPLICATING HIS BUNDESLIGA FORM
In July, Manchester United completed the signing of Sancho from Borussia Dortmund. Apparently, they’d been tracking him for a while and even attempted to sign him last summer. Who knew?
The transfer saga may have been tedious, but there’s nothing dull about Sancho the footballer – even if we didn’t get to see much of him before penalty heartache at Euro 2020.
The England international left for Germany in 2017 as an unknown quantity. Yet to make his professional debut then, he’d turned down a lucrative contract offer from Manchester City. Unfairly but predictably, whispers of a bad attitude abounded. The assumption was that Sancho, not City, would be the one harbouring regrets four years down the line.
His move to Dortmund was a brave one, but perhaps it shouldn’t have been seen that way given the German giants’ well- earned reputation as European football’s foremost finishing school.
But moving abroad just wasn’t something that English footballers did – especially those barely out of short trousers. It’s a measure of Sancho’s success that so many others have since felt sufficiently emboldened to move overseas, however; the 21- year- old has established a clear pathway, and arrives back in Manchester as the second- most expensive English player of all time.
United will pay around £ 73m for Sancho – a significantly smaller sum than the reported £ 108m that Dortmund demanded in 2020. Still, keeping hold of him for another year had its benefits: without him, BVB might not have won the DFB- Pokal nor qualified for the Champions League as they did.
After a patient start, Sancho established himself as a Dortmund regular in the 2018- 19 campaign. His dazzling displays earned him a spot in the Bundesliga’s team of the year – one he retained in 2019- 20. He didn’t make the cut last term, but only because he started slowly and then missed a chunk of game time through injury.
His numbers were outstanding. In three full seasons as a starter, Sancho scored 49 goals and added 53 assists in all competitions – frankly phenomenal numbers for a young player under the age of 21 in one of Europe’s top five leagues. Indeed, no one in that age group can match Sancho’s tally of direct goal involvements since his Dortmund debut in August 2017. Sancho racked up 83 in the Bundesliga – nine more than Kylian Mbappe in Ligue 1. His returns surpassed every English player in a top five league since 1992; none of Robbie Fowler ( 76), Michael Owen ( 73) nor Wayne Rooney ( 66) hit Sancho’s output level.
This is a big season for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who is still trophyless at Old Trafford. United finished second last term, but never really challenged. With Sancho, they should get closer. He might yet give Manchester City something to really regret...
NO PLAYER UNDER 21 CAN MATCH SANCHO’S OUTPUT OF GOALS AND ASSISTS SINCE 2017