“I’m happy to be back on the field!”
Jadon Sancho (Manchester United) has a smile on his face as he returns to Borussia Dortmund.
Manchester United officially announced on Nov. 11 that Jadon Sancho has joined Borussia Dortmund on loan. On the same day, Dortmund announced that Jadon Sancho had joined the club on loan until the end of the season.
Sancho, who plays for German Bundesliga club Dortmund, joined United for the 2021-2022 season. At the time, United paid a transfer fee of €85 million (approximately $122.7 billion) for Sancho. United were so desperate to sign Sancho that they pursued him for two years.
Many United fans were hoping that Sancho would be as good as he was at Dortmund, but he didn’t quite make it at United. He finished the 2021-2022 season with five goals and three assists in 38 games, a far cry from his performance at Dortmund.
Fans believed that Sancho had failed to adapt at United and hadn’t found the right manager for him, so they expected him to regain his Dortmund form after the arrival of Erik ten Hagg last season.
However, fans’ expectations were quickly shattered. Sancho’s start to the 2022-2023 season wasn’t bad. By the fifth round of the English Premier League, he had scored two goals and was the team’s top scorer, but by the midway point of the season, Sancho had fallen off the radar.
The slump put him under extreme mental stress. Van Gaal even ordered him to go on a ‘closed-door’ training program in an attempt to revive his form. Despite this, he only managed seven goals and three assists in 41 games.
Last season, despite Van Gaal’s best efforts, Sancho was a complete bust for the club. He didn’t play at all after the third-round match as he fell out with Van Gaal, who was trying to revive his career.
Van Gaal even left Sancho off the substitutes’ bench against Arsenal FC in the fourth round of the Premier League. The decision was met with confusion, as Sancho had not accumulated any cautions or been sent off, nor was he on the injury list.
After the match against Arsenal, Van Gaal revealed the reason for his exclusion. “I didn’t pick Sancho because I wasn’t happy with his performance in training. Sancho should always strive to reach the level of Man United in training.”
Sancho immediately responded to Van Gaal’s interview. ”You shouldn’t believe everything you read,” he said in an official statement on his social media accounts. I believe there are other reasons for this matter. I have been a scapegoat for a long time. I always do my best in training,” he said.
Van Gaal had a private meeting with Sancho to discuss the situation. During the meeting, Ten Haag showed him a video of Sancho’s last training session before the Arsenal game. Sancho did not agree.
Ten Haag later wanted Sancho to delete his social media statement and apologize. Sancho deleted the post, but then posted another one in which he feuded with Ten Haag. In the end, there was no reconciliation, and Sancho was expelled from the first team.
Eventually, Sancho left United in the January transfer window to join his hometown club Dortmund. Sancho was photographed smiling and holding a Dortmund jersey with the number 10 on it on January 11. Sancho’s deal is a loan, not an outright transfer. The loan deal reportedly does not include an option clause for a full transfer.
Sancho immediately joined Dortmund training. Dortmund trained on Thursday ahead of their round 17 match against Darmstadt. ”Happy to be back on the field,” Sancho wrote on social media, posting a photo of the training session.
Ironically, United fans are hoping Sancho will do well at Dortmund. The reason is the transfer fee. When United signed Sancho, the transfer fee was around 120 billion won. However, according to global transfer market site Transfermarkt, Sancho’s estimated transfer fee is now around $36 billion.
Man Utd fans want Sancho to move to another team in the upcoming summer transfer window after his stellar performances for Dortmund.