Jadon Sancho: From street football prodigy to England star
Pulling on a black and yellow shirt for a top tier football club was always a dream of Jadon Sancho — but little did he know it would be the colours of Borussia Dortmund and not his boyhood club Watford.
His early career may not have developed in the manner he may have expected — but that’s not such a bad thing.
After becoming the first England player born this century, he has excelled in the national shirt. You can guarantee there will be many more call-ups for the 19-year-old sensation.
But where did he come from, and how did he get where he is today?
STREET EDUCATION
Before the glitz and glamour of professional football, Sancho was first and foremost a street player. When he wasn’t in school, he was out playing football and nurturing his own talent on the streets of south London.
Born to Trinidadian parents, he spent his early years in Kennington, south London — which is where his love affair with football began.
“I was on an estate. There’s a park behind that we called Blue Park, and we used to just go there and for two hours just play mini games, everyone used to get so into it,” Sancho told Sky Sports. “I used to have all the tricks, nutmeg people, and I was doing it like the older boys.”
Dan Micciche was Sancho’s England youth team coach. He believes that early street schooling was vital for him.
“People think academies produce these players — they don’t,” he told the Guardian last September. “They do a lot of things — they support, develop, nurture. But they inherit 90%, 95% of the player, even when they join at nine.
“It’s about the other five, 10% — that can be crucial, as the player is either completed or the 90 (is) shattered.”
That 90% of a player Sancho had formed himself into proved attractive to some of England’s top clubs — but Watford were the most appealing to him.
EARNING HIS STRIPES
He joined the Hornets as an eight-year-old, rejecting Arsenal who had finished third in the Premier League that season.
Watford was more local, so it was the better choice for him. And it’s a choice he will consider crucial to his early career.
He immediately impressed at Watford — but he was SO successful he drew the eye of Manchester City, who snapped him up in 2014. The deal, with a fee reportedly rising to £500k, had put him on a fast track to the top of the Premier League.
His former coach Micciche even hailed him as “the English Neymar”.
“Provided he doesn’t become restricted, he could be our (England’s) Neymar-type player — in terms of being unpredictable, playing on that left-hand side,” said Micciche. “He’s flamboyant, entertaining to watch, but like Neymar he’s effective.”
He’s even becoming a commercial marvel. He starred in Nike’s launch of their new Air Force 1 shoes and is now one of Dortmund’s lead figures in a new digital collectibles game, Fantastec SWAP. Yes, Sancho is now starting to get a taste of life as a global football icon.
ENGLAND VIA DORTMUND
The Man City dream didn’t pan out though. The first team remained on the wrong side of the glass ceiling for Sancho and despite his clear potential he could not break through.
In his two seasons with City, he made just six appearances in the UEFA Youth League and seven for the under 23s.
According to his former manager, Pep Guardiola, Sancho lacked patience and commitment as he struggled for a place. “He didn’t want to take this challenge, this opportunity to discover if he was able to,” Guardiola said.
But it seems his gamble to leave the club paid off.
City accepted a bid of £8m for their young star from Borussia Dortmund. Sancho took the leap of faith and joined up with the German giants in 2017 — and in his first two seasons his impact has been incredible.
City are surely now watching on wondering what they must have missed.
After making 12 appearances and scoring his first goal in a 4–0 win over Bayer Leverkusen, his second season has rocketed him to another level.
Sancho has helped fire Dortmund into a neck-and-neck title race with Bayern Munich. His eight goals and 15 assists in 26 appearances make him one of the league’s most dangerous competitors.
Unsurprisingly, at 19 years of age, he is now rated as one of Europe’s most wanted young talents.
Comparisons to Neymar may be premature, but time is very much on Sancho’s side. Dortmund’s young star could yet become the player that youngsters aspire to be, if he is not already.
Fantastec SWAP is a digital collectibles game that gives global fans the chance to collect their favourite players and trade with fans from across the globe. It is available on iOS and Android, download it now!
