Jadon Sancho had had a horrid season so far. If you have even a passing interest in Manchester United, you know the story -- playing false nine in pre-season for United and impressing, never doing that in the three league matches he played, getting banned from the first team (and all first-team facilities) after a very public falling out with the manager... spending months out of action, just watching on. In January, with zero hope of reconciliation with Eric Ten Hag, he had been loaned back to the place they bought him from, Borussia Dortmund.
Even at Dortmund, the club that valued him so much they once recalled him from an U17 World Cup because of how important he was for a decent league finish, he'd looked... well, bad. The touch was lacking, the movement unsteady, his presence unsure. He was misplacing simple passes, not reading the game at the level we've seen him do in a yellow shirt. He'd played seven matches for them, providing two assists (both against teams in the relegation zone) and in a struggling team, he looked like yet another misfit. From the outside in, the future was looking a bit bleak. Until their visit to Bremen happened on Saturday, that is.
Deployed on the left-wing, nominally, he was moving across the pitch showing glimpses, often frustrating, of what he can do with the ball at feet when he exploded into life to score a sensational goal, toying with Bremen defender Julian Malatini... if that was a hint, what happened on Wednesday night in their Champions League round of 16 second-leg match against PSV was the real deal: Jadon Sancho may well be back.
The move that showcased the best of Sancho starts, if you go back far enough, with a Mats Hummels long-ball being charged down and deflecting wide to the massive frame of makeshift right back Nicklas Sule. Once Sule gets the ball wide, Sancho immediately realises that he needs to give his teammate an option. Ostensibly playing left wing, he's found himself drifting into central midfield, and it's from there that he directs Sule to play it out to the right wing. The clock reads 02:35 when he touches the ball, drops a shoulder and zips into open space in what was previously a crowded area in the middle of the park. A couple of touches later he's moved it on to Julian Brandt, and he goes of wandering again. At no point does he break into a sprint -- that's not his style (and he's been derided for a perceived lack of visible passion for that many a time) -- but he moves quietly across the field... and when Brandt gets the ball back after a bit of pinball in the area, Sancho is now perfectly placed to receive the tee-up from him.
JADON SANCHO WITH A MASSIVE GOAL FROM OUTSIDE THE BOX TO PUT DORTMUND AHEAD THREE MINUTES IN!
WHAT A HIT �� pic.twitter.com/sZILfP88Xt
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 13, 2024
And then, magic... A touch to get it out of his feet, waiting just a millisecond with the assured arrogance that comes with knowing just how good you are at this sport, and he's passed it into the bottom corner -- off the near post and in, unsavable.
02:52 and it was 1-0 on the night, 2-1 on aggregate... and that's how it would stay till Marco Reus pounced on a mistake in the 95th minute to add a touch of gloss on the score. Make no mistake, though, it was Sancho who had made the difference.
"It was like a relief...", said Sancho after the match. He'd celebrated thumping the badge on his shirt, and he explained it so, "I have always got a special place for Borussia Dortmund. This is where I made my name, I've got to be grateful to them but also my teammates for believing in me..."
Belief.
After that weekend win against Bremen, Dortmund coach Edin Terzic had said that considering how the past 12 months had been for Sancho, it made sense that it would take him time to reach the levels everyone knows Sancho is capable of hitting. He'd also said that Sancho had not been happy with this, and that Sancho had had a long conversation with him... and that his input had been one of encouragement. Basically, it was the coach telling him that he believed in him, in his ability. And with the freedom of movement Sancho was showing on the pitch, with the number of times teammates looked to him to start moves off... those were clearly not empty words.
It's now up to Sancho to build on this, on the clarion call that is a celebration in front of the Yellow Wall, on the belief of his manager and his teammates. For now, though, he's shown that he has the willingness do it -- and for that he takes our UCL MOTW.