A few months ago, Borussia Dortmund looked at Jadon Sancho’s struggles at Manchester United with detached interest.
If there was a bit of sadness over his failure to live up to his huge talent, it was offset by no small sense of relief. The Westphalians had extracted maximum value (€85m; £74m; $93m) for a player who could be inconsistent and had long-running difficulties with punctuality. Unlocking his potential was no longer their problem.
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Senior club figures, talking to The Athletic on condition of anonymity to protect their positions, dismissed rumours about the 23-year-old’s return to Signal Iduna Park this winter as fanciful only a couple of weeks ago. “It won’t happen,” one of them said, categorically.
Why, then, the sudden change of heart that means Sancho seems likely to return this month?
One reason can be found in Dortmund’s poor end to the calendar year. They failed to win any of their six games in all competitions in December, dropping to fifth in the table, six points adrift of fourth-placed RB Leipzig and 15 points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
A pre-Christmas summit by the men in charge determined that the embattled Edin Terzic would stay on but it was felt necessary to bring back former players Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender as assistant coaches to provide fresh ideas (and make it easier for the club to sack Terzic if performances continue to underwhelm).
Something different, bosses deduced, was also needed up front. Dortmund’s wingers Donyell Malen (who could leave this month, with the club open to selling him, even before Sancho became an option), Karim Adeyemi and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens have collectively performed below expectations, scoring a combined 10 goals in 25 matches. What’s more, they’ve been particularly ineffective in slower possession play, where Sancho used to excel. Bringing him back signals an attempt to make the team less reliant on counter-attacks and to foster a more dominant, controlled game plan.
For that to happen, however, Sancho will need to play at a level he hasn’t been able to reach since leaving Dortmund in the summer of 2021. Does he still have the hunger and application after six months on the sidelines? Dortmund are hopeful the former England international will jump at the chance of rehabilitation in a familiar environment, even if his fitness levels might only allow for substitute appearances in the first few weeks.
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The key man in all of this could well be Terzic, who has already shown he can get the best out of the forward. When the 41-year-old was appointed caretaker manager in December 2020, he instructed a couple of staff members to pay special attention to Sancho, making sure he was not late for meetings, and also ensured that the player would spend as much time as possible in close proximity to Erling Haaland, hoping the Norwegian’s professionalism would rub off.
His form and fitness certainly improved a lot in those last six months, which concluded with him playing a key part in Dortmund’s DFB Pokal triumph (4-1 vs Leipzig) in Berlin.
Haaland and Sancho demonstrated fine form at Dortmund (Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
Inside the Dortmund dressing room, there’s real excitement about Sancho’s imminent return, as fond memories of his mercurial impact during his three and a half years at the club far outweigh concerns about the odd lapse of discipline. He would find himself playing alongside many familiar faces, though of course Haaland and Jude Bellingham, two of the stars of the side he was part of previously, have moved on.
Most importantly, however, his prospective loan move comes with minimal risk attached from the Germans’ point of view. Club sources have told The Athletic that Sancho’s heavily subsidised engagement will only cost them €3million all-in until May, a negligible sum that effectively makes him a one-way bet.
Dortmund are unlikely to benefit directly if Sancho’s value rises following a successful stint in the Bundesliga; his wages and United’s fee demands render a full-time return improbable. But if he helps them beat Peter Bosz’s PSV Eindhoven in the round of 16 in the Champions League and/or makes the difference as far as Dortmund qualifying for next year’s competition is concerned, he will be worth that outlay a few times over.
(Top photo: Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Munich-born Raphael Honigstein has lived in London since 1993. He writes about German football and the Premier League. Follow Raphael on Twitter @honigstein
