Jadon Sancho

Jadon Malik Sancho (born 25 March 2000) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, on loan from Premier League club Manchester United.

Jadon Malik Sancho was born on 25 March 2000 in Camberwell, Greater London, to a mother from Trinidad and Tobago and father of Jamaican and Guyanese descent.

He lived in the Guinness Trust Building estate in Kennington.

He became friends with fellow aspiring footballer Reiss Nelson, who lived nearby, after they played together in youth tournaments.

Growing up, he was a Chelsea fan and looked up to Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.

Included among his goals for the month was a brace in a draw against Hertha Berlin which saw him become the first player born in the 2000s to score twice in a single Bundesliga match and the youngest ever by a Dortmund player.

On 24 October, he also became the first player born in the 2000s to score in the UEFA Champions League for Dortmund against Atlético Madrid.

At the age of 14, he moved to Manchester City in March 2015 for an initial fee of £66,000 under the Elite Player Performance Plan, potentially rising to £500,000 with add ons.

Previously a youth player with Watford and Manchester City, Sancho signed his first senior contract with Borussia Dortmund in 2017.

Sancho was part of the England youth team that won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and made his debut for the senior team in 2018.

Sancho continued to impress in the City academy and was one of a trio of players that City chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said would be fast tracked into the senior set up in May 2017.

In July, Sancho was omitted from City's pre-season tour squad due to a dispute over assurances of playing time in a new contract.

It was subsequently reported that Sancho was attempting to engineer a move away from the club and City were alarmed at Sancho's attitude after he missed training following a pre-season tour.

Sancho signed for German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund on 31 August 2017 for a fee reported to be in the region of £8 million and was immediately included in the first-team squad.

He later stated that he felt confident in making the move abroad due to his previous experiences in relocating with Watford and Manchester City.

Sancho made his debut for the club against Eintracht Frankfurt on 21 October, coming on as a substitute with six minutes left of the match, becoming the first Englishman to play a Bundesliga match for Dortmund.

Sancho's primary inspiration was Ronaldinho saying in 2018 to Sky Sports that "Ronaldinho was a big influence on me, watching him on YouTube, he used to do things that other people didn't really used to do."

Sancho joined Watford at the age of seven.

Due to issues with commuting across London to the club's academy, he moved into accommodation provided by Watford and began attending their partner school Harefield Academy as a boarder, aged 11.

At the age of 14 he told his Watford under-15s coach about his intention to play for England.

Sancho made his first league start for Dortmund on 14 January 2018, hitting the woodwork in a goalless draw with VfL Wolfsburg.

He scored his first professional goal on 21 April.

It was the first goal in a 4–0 victory against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and he also assisted two other goals in the same match.

Having signed a new contract keeping him at the club until 2022, Sancho enjoyed a successful October 2018 by being named Bundesliga Player of the Month, registering three goals and an assist in just three league games.

Following an impressive league campaign in which he scored 12 goals and provided 14 assists, Sancho was named in the 2018–19 Bundesliga Team of the Season.

Over four seasons with the club he made 137 appearances and won the 2019 DFL-Supercup and the 2020–21 DFB-Pokal, where he finished as the tournament's top scorer.

Sancho returned to England to sign for Manchester United in 2021, winning an EFL Cup in his second season, before being loaned back to Dortmund in 2024.

During a 3–3 draw with Hoffenheim on 9 February 2019, he became the youngest-ever player to score eight goals in a single Bundesliga season, breaking the record previously held by Christian Wück.

Later that month, upon scoring in a 3–2 win over Bayer Leverkusen, he broke Lukas Podolski's record to become the youngest player to score nine Bundesliga goals, aged 18 years and 336 days.

On 13 April, Sancho scored a brace in a 2–1 win over Mainz and in doing so became the youngest-ever Dortmund player to score at least 10 goals in a single Bundesliga campaign.

Success continued ahead of the 2019–20 season, with Sancho providing an assist and scoring in a 2–0 DFL-Supercup victory over Bayern Munich on 3 August 2019.

Later that month Sancho agreed a new contract with Dortmund.

In November, he was named runner-up in the Golden Boy award.

The next month, he was named runner-up in the Kopa Trophy award.

Sancho's goal in Dortmund's 3–3 draw with RB Leipzig on 17 December meant he had scored in seven consecutive games for the club (including in Champions League matches against Barcelona and Slavia Prague), bringing his tally up to 15 goals and 16 assists in the Bundesliga in the calendar year of 2019.

Sancho's three goals and three assists in five league matches during February 2020 saw him named Bundesliga Player of the Month for the second time in his career.

On 31 May 2020, Sancho scored his first career hat-trick in a 6–1 away win over Paderborn.

After scoring his first goal, he removed his shirt to reveal a shirt with the message "Justice for George Floyd", a black man who was murdered earlier that week in Minneapolis by a police officer, who knelt on Floyd's neck until he became unresponsive.

On 13 May 2021, Sancho scored two goals in a 4–1 win over RB Leipzig in the 2021 DFB-Pokal final.

On 1 July 2021, it was announced that Manchester United and Dortmund had reached an agreement for Sancho's transfer, subject to him signing a contract and passing a medical, both of which were expected to happen after UEFA Euro 2020.