When Borussia Dortmund paid a fee in the region of £8 million on 31st August 2017 for the English prodigy, many wonder what the directors at Dortmund were thinking to cough out such amount of money for a relatively unknown Manchester City academy product who was left out of the club’s preseason tour due to contractual issues. Fast forward a few months after he moved abroad, he made his debut for The Black and Yellows against Eintracht Frankfurt in October 2017.
Sancho made his first league start for Dortmund on 14th January 2018, hitting the woodwork in a goalless draw against VfL Wolfsburg. He scored his first professional goal on 21 April 2018 in a 4–0 victory against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and he also assisted two other goals in the same match – on this day, a new star was unearth.
Lucien Favre’s arrival at Dortmund Brackel Training Ground in the summer has helped transformed the youngster into the footballing talk of the town in Dortmund. The Swiss tactician is well known to harness young talents and mold them into their best potentials means Sancho is amongst the lucky lads to learn their trade other the former OGC Nice coach.
The former Manchester City player showed signs of his quality towards the end of last season. He made a total of 12 league appearances and scored once but it was evidently clear Jadon had special qualities.
Fast-forward to 2018/19 season and Sancho has made 24 appearances till date scoring seven goals and nine assists. He has been providing assist at one in every 113 minutes of play with his strike rate at one in every 170 minutes. These are impressive numbers for a millennium born talent who is yet to clock 19 years of age.
His progress at Dortmund has not gone unnoticed by Gareth Southgate and his crew who extended a senior national team call up to him in October. He made his debut as a 78th minute substitute against Croatia on 12 October in a 0–0 away draw and has three caps for the Three Lions now.
“I’m so happy that I chose to come to Dortmund a year ago,” said Sancho after committing his future to them earlier this year. “Everything I was hoping for has come true: this city loves football like no other, and at BVB young players get regular playing time. I can really make outstanding progress here. I’m happy, delighted and proud to be part of this team. We’re building something amazing.”
Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said Sancho reminds him a bit of Ousmane Dembele whose swift rise in BVB shirt earned the French man a €105 million move to Barcelona. He would be hoping Jadon doesn’t follow the French man path in forcing a move away from Westphalia.
Dortmund are building a strong team that seem to be on the right path under a well-rounded manager and the thought of a first Bundesliga title since 2012 is very exciting. “We just have to keep working hard and focus on the next game, and if we keep on doing this we’ve got a good chance of winning the league or – who knows? – the Champions League,” Sancho said after inspiring Dortmund to victory over Bayern Munich in a Klassiker encounter which perhaps marked his definite arrival on the biggest stage.
Jadon Sancho is becoming one of the sensations of European football and his performances is beginning to stir up interests from the biggest clubs around the continent. Real Madrid and Barcelona are reportedly interested in English wonderkid Jadon Sancho, who has been in fine form for Borussia Dortmund this term. According to a report by MARCA, Jadon Sancho is garnering attention from some of the biggest clubs in European football. The likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are all interested in signing the English wonderkid, and are monitoring his progress at Borussia Dortmund with the view to possibly making a move in the future.
Jadon is surely on the right path with a very bright future. With such progressive growth, the Borussia Dortmund man must be a contender for the next Raymond Kopa Trophy. Watch this space as Sancho continues his meteoric rise in the game.