9,520 JADON SANCHO, 21 Borussia Dortmund, Winger
Pep Guardiola called him a player of “huge qual- ity” while talking about Manchester City’s quarter-final opponents in the 2020-21 Champions League. Manchester United tried hard to sign the winger after he graduated from the City academy at 17, but couldn’t match Borussia Dortmund’s reported asking price of 120 million Euros.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool too have been interested in the England international who “exploded” (his words) onto the scene in the 2018-19 Bundesliga.
In 2017, Jadon Sancho had Kolkata thirsting for more. The wide midfielder had three goals and two assists in the 2017 Under-17 World Cup before Dortmund called him away. Days after he left India, Dortmund played their No 7 — a shirt they reserved for him after Ousmane Dembele left — from south London, an area which had seven players in the U-17 World Cup winning squad, against Eintracht Frankfurt.
It was quite a baptism by fire. Sancho said he tried dribbling a player and was promptly sent to the floor, dispossessed. “Welcome to adult football, eh?” he said in an interview with Fourfourtwo magazine.
But under Dortmund coaches Peter Stoger
and Lucien
Favre, Sancho grew. In 12 months, he was replacing Raheem Sterling as England substitute against Croatia. In
2018-19, he completed the most dribbles in Bundesliga. Days after his grandmother died in
2018, he scored in the Ruhr derby against Schalke. That goal was also dedicated to his younger brother, who died when Sancho was five.
The best compliment you can give this player born to immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago? Call him a street footballer. Growing up in a tough neighbourhood in south London, he’s said football kept him on the straight and narrow after school. It helped that Harefield Academy, the school he moved to as a boarder at 11, had a partnership with Watford, which would be his first club. From there, he joined the City academy, was fast-tracked to the senior team and then to Dortmund. This has meant years away from family. “I miss them a lot,” Lifeblogger has quoted him as saying, “but I wanted to do what’s best for me.”