Jadon Sancho was shipped back from United as damaged goods. Now he’s in rehab at his adopted home

It annoyed people here in Dortmund and even beyond when Jadon Sancho flopped at Manchester United. Born in London perhaps, but they see him as a Bundesliga export.

When goals and assists that have flowed so easily in Germany suddenly dry up in the Premier League – see also Timo Werner – it is reason for the doubters of the ‘Farmer’s League’ to plow their disdain. To be clear, the Bundesliga has two teams in the last four of the Champions League, while England have none.

So Sancho’s recovery is about him, and not about the country where he feels so at home. And that’s why he’s here, back at Borussia Dortmund, the club that made him that £73 million export in the first place.

It would be easy to say that the 24-year-old has been reborn as he finds himself playing in the last four of the world’s premier club competition just four months after returning on loan. But that wouldn’t be right. Not yet, at least.

The Sancho returned by United arrived with a ‘damaged goods’ tag on it. He wouldn’t be the only young man to be broken by a move to Old Trafford, but the responsibility for performance lies primarily with the player, not the club. And that is the concern with Sancho: does he have the desire to get the very best from the talent that burned so brightly during his first spell at Dortmund?

Sancho returned as ‘damaged goods’ and he doesn’t look like the same player who left in 2021

Sancho has become a safe model who looks devoid of expression, with far fewer of his trademark bold darts down the wing

Watch him now and he’s not the same player. Regardless of the numbers – three goals and two assists in sixteen games – your eyes tell you so much. Here’s a simple observation, but he rarely runs very fast anymore.

There is something of Jack Grealish version 2.0 about Sancho now, the safe model who looks expressionless. Gone are the dribbles, the daring shots down the wing or infield, the unpredictability that left the opponent helpless. The end product was predictable then. His final season with Dortmund yielded 36 goals (16 goals, 20 assists) from 38 games.

When I spent some time with data analyst experts in the summer of 2020, they took me through their system’s algorithm and what it told them – and the clubs they worked with – about players’ future performance.

Fascinatingly, they boldly predicted that Werner, who had just joined Chelsea from RB Leipzig for £45 million, would not be a success in the Premier League. But I will never forget their confidence around Sancho. He was twenty years old at the time and according to them he was a future winner of the Ballon d’Or.

The 24-year-old made enemies all around him at United, especially with boss Erik ten Hag (L)

He was seen as an embarrassment when the £73 million signing was banned from first-team facilities

He will never be that again now, and you even wonder if his international career will be stuck forever at 23 caps, the last of which was almost three years ago. Despite being one of only four Englishmen left in the Champions League, there is no talk in the British or German media of a late push for the European Championship.

This is more like a rehab clinic, albeit in the midst of the world’s gaze. That’s the pressure Sancho has to prove he can bear. But he is clearly happier in this environment. He was the team’s best player and scored this weekend, albeit in a 4-1 defeat at Leipzig.

He also has strong allies in head coach Edin Terzic and sporting director Sebastian Kehl, although they admit the winger is not yet at his previous level.

At United, Sancho made enemies of those above him. He embarrassed them at the end, had to train alone and was banned from the first team facilities. Here is his smiling face coming back to you from the club shop window in the shadows of Signal Iduna Park. That same face is on mugs, posters and T-shirts.

This return to Dortmund and Germany is a rehabilitation for Sancho, who is trying to get back to his best

It seems that Germany was the perfect place for 24-year-old Sancho to progress as a player

It will also be on the pitch when Dortmund plays Paris Saint-Germain tonight. That’s where he can help advocate for the strength and vitality of his adopted home. But even more relevant is that he must demonstrate his own health and well-being.

After this season, his future is unknown. Ironically, Dortmund’s development of the player for the first time probably lowered the price to buy him back. United want to get a large part of the transfer fee back and Sancho’s wage expectations would be prohibitive for them.

Winning the Champions League would of course help. And that was always his dream when he played for Dortmund three seasons ago with Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland. The three of them set out to achieve their goals. It seems like Sancho was better off here all along.