Jadon Sancho made the perfect start to his second Borussia Dortmund spell with an assist in their 3-0 win at Darmstadt on Saturday evening.
The winger has returned to BVB on loan from Manchester United for the rest of the 2023/24 season after a falling out with manager Erik ten Hag.
After making an immediate impact back in the Bundesliga, there has been talk of Sancho staying at Dortmund beyond his loan spell, despite the club not having an option to make the move permanent.
But what are Sancho’s options likely to be come the end of the season? 90min assesses what the future could hold.
Sancho’s route back into the current United setup revolves around his relationship with Ten Hag. The Dutchman dropped the winger from the matchday squad to face Arsenal in September, citing his poor training level.
In response, Sancho took to social media and denied these claims, effectively calling Ten Hag a liar. This post remained pinned to the top of his X/Twitter page for several days before eventually being removed. After Sancho refused to apologise to Ten Hag, he was banished from the first-team.
For Sancho to be reintegrated to United’s current setup, sources have told 90min he would still need to say sorry to Ten Hag and the dressing room, meaning even if he does well at Dortmund the situation won’t change without some form of private and public apology.
By the time his loan ends, INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe will be officially in charge of the sporting side of the club and have completed their strategic review of United. This will include making a judgment on the future of Ten Hag. That’s not to say he’s likely to be sacked, but in a hypothetical where United didn’t achieve their goals this season and Sancho did, then it is still possible he could return under a new manager without the need for an apology.
If Sancho were to wind up back at Old Trafford and Ten Hag was not there, it’s unlikely the winger would have any problem assessing the possibility of staying – his gripe is with the manager and not the club.
Dortmund went into this deal thinking longer-term than just a loan deal, but they were not able to agree on the type of option or obligation to buy that took control away from United.
When fielding an enquiry with Saudi Pro League club Al Ettifaq over a loan for Sancho in September, United made demands for any agreement to include an obligatory purchase clause of £50m, but failure to have a similar clause in the Dortmund deal shouldn’t been seen as United failing in negotiations so much as a change in approach.
United felt it was simply better to send Sancho away in search of game-time, have another team cover his wages, recoup a fee and give him some distance from Ten Hag. Dortmund are paying a fixed €3.5m (£3m) fee plus a potential €4m (£3.4m) in add-ons – a number which could exceed Sancho’s wages over that time period and so United could stand to breakeven or even make profit.
At this stage, the most likely scenario if Sancho performs well for the rest of the season is that he will be sold by United simply because they may need money from the sale to move with more flexibility in the summer market. The aim of this loan is to offset his wages, increase his value and then shift him on permanently for a fee of around €58m (£50m), whether that’s to Dortmund or another club.
Dortmund’s top-four prospects looked slim prior to the Bundesliga’s winter break, but they are now only three points behind RB Leipzig in fourth and four behind third-placed Stuttgart.
Sancho is also eligible to play in Dortmund’s Champions League knockout campaign, with BVB drawn against Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven in the last 16.
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