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Jadon Sancho made a German legend do something he’d never done before, long before his Manchester United spell turned into a nightmare.
Sancho’s disastrous two-and-a-half year stint at United came to an end on Thursday when he completed a loan move to former club Borussia Dortmund.
The Premier League giants signed the winger from the German side in 2021 for £73 million, but the move proved to be nothing short of a disaster.
After struggling to make much of an impact during his first two campaigns at Old Trafford, Sancho fell out with United boss Erik ten Hag in August and hasn’t played for the club since.
Ten Hag left the 23-year-old out of his matchday squad for United’s Premier League defeat to Arsenal on September 3, and refused to recall Sancho until he apologised for what the manager described as poor training performances.
Sancho’s career has stalled since his big move, but there is no doubting that he is still an extremely talented player; just ask Lothar Matthaus.
The German World Cup winner was working out in the gym when he first came across a teenage Sancho, and was so taken aback that he immediately stopped and picked up the phone.
“Five or six years ago, I was watching a European Championship U17 game. They [England] were playing against Norway,” the 1990 Ballon d’Or winner said.
“I was watching this game on Eurosport on the TV in the gym. I had this screen on when I was running, and I saw the game, and I knew nothing about it, just that this game was on.
“I saw on the left wing somebody from England, and after 15 minutes, I stopped running, something I’d never done before in my life because when I start something, I like to finish.
“Then I called my friend, and I was telling him on the phone, ‘Hey, put on Eurosport, on the left side is a player, where is he from?
“Half an hour later, he gave me the information that he was playing for Man City. I said, ‘When you get this player under contract, you will make millions’.”
Matthaus was right. Just four months later Dortmund signed Sancho from City for just £8 million, and turned a £65 million profit four years later.
Sancho will spend the remainder of the 2023/24 season on loan at Dortmund, with the Bundesliga side paying a £3 million fee (with up to an additional £3.4 million in add-ons) and the majority of the player’s wages. There is no purchase option in the deal.
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