“Ever since I’ve come back, I have felt at home and I’m just happy to be back on the pitch again,” Jadon Sancho said after marking his homecoming appearance at Borussia Dortmund with an assist for Marco Reus. “It was meant to be, coming back and seeing Marco again. He’s a great friend of mine and I’m happy to set up his goal. [My goal is] to be happy again, to be back on the pitch and to help the team, get them back in the top three and qualify for the Champions League.”
The 23-year-old was able to make an instant impact on his return to competitive action, 140 days after his last appearance for Manchester United, as he helped Dortmund earn a crucial 3-0 win away at Darmstadt in the Bundesliga. Sancho did more in a 35-minute cameo than he had across the entirety of his three Premier League outings for the Red Devils at the very start of the season, and he claims it’s just the beginning.
“I’ve got personal goals which I’m not going to say for now,” Sancho added. “I just want to help the team and I’m very positive about the second half of the season.”
One of those goals will be to add to his haul of 23 caps for England, with the last one coming way back in October 2021. Sancho described his £73 million ($93m) move to United from Dortmund three months earlier as a “dream come true”, but he failed to hit the ground running at Old Trafford, and his international career has been put on hold.
Gareth Southgate could certainly use a fully fit and firing Sancho at the European Championship this summer. At the very least, he would give England another option out wide, perhaps as an impact substitute in tighter games.
But the Three Lions boss should be very wary about bringing Sancho back in from the cold after watching his rapid decline at United. It seems that the talented young forward has a problem with authority, and England don’t need a disruptive figure in their ranks – especially if they are serious about going all the way in Germany.