Jadon Sancho: 16 Facts About The English Footballer

Jadon Sancho

Jadon Sancho is the English footballer who has taken the world by a storm making him one of the most talked about players in Europe this season! He’s none other than Jadon Sancho, a huge part of Borussia Dortmund’s success so far. The Englishman plays an important role in Lucien Favre’s attacking formation playing for the German Bundesliga side, Borussia Dortmund. Born on March 25, 2000, he is one of the finest younger players who has always been on the radar of a number of European major clubs. A coveted baller, he is a product of his youthful vigor, supplemented by his amiable soccer skills. The 20-year-old who’s nicknamed ‘The Rocket’ has done so well for numerous youth teams that he’s quickly becoming someone who can take on the weighty responsibility of team leaders. The prodigy’s thirst for excellence is one of the remarkable qualities that make him one of the unique stars that will certainly reshape pro football in the 21st century. 

Jadon Sancho: Biography Broken Down In 16 Facts 

1. Quick facts:

Before going into details, let’s take a quick look at some general facts about Jadon Sancho.

  • Jadon Sancho Full Name:  Jadon Malik Sancho 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Nicknames:  The Rocket, Assist King 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Date of Birth:  March 25, 2000 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Age:  20 years 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Place of Birth: Camberwell, England 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Nationality:  English 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Height:  5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Weight:  76 kg 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Education:  Crampton primary school, Harefield Academy 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Playing Position:  Midfielder 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Current Team:  Borussia Dortmund 
  • Jadon Sancho’s Jersey Number:  7 

2. Childhood and ethnicity: 

Jadon Malik Sancho was born on the 25th of March 2000 to his parents Mr and Mrs Sean Sancho in Camberwell, South London, United Kingdom. Judging by his looks, you’ll know that he’s not fully British, but from a mixed-race background. 

In reality, Jadon Sancho’s parents are from Trinidad and Tobago. They both wanted to move to England to have their son. 

Having supportive parents is important, and Sancho’s father, whose name is Sean, is commonly recognised as a good father who has done his best to keep his son focused. Sean is often committed to the success of Jadon’s career, even to the detriment of his work. The fact that Jadon Sancho remained on track is a tribute to his lovely parents, sisters and relatives who were standing by him.

This fact reveals the origin of Jadon Sancho. Jadon was raised in the Kennington area of South London. Growing up with his sisters, he attended the Harefield Academy located in Northwood (home of the Football Club) in London. While in school, Jadon’s enthusiasm for soccer saw him join the roster of his high school team, where he had the opportunity to play competitive soccer during the sports period.

3. Jadon Sancho was a promising Manchester City youth player:

His ability to control the ball like a wizard impressed scouts and led him to be constantly scouted by the top league clubs. After discussing with his family, Jadon Sancho eventually agreed to make a deal in 2015. At the age of 14, Jadon Sancho transferred to Manchester City, where he continued to impress at their academy winning youth honors and awards in his name. One of the interesting Top Facts about Jadon Sancho is that he was one of a few city academy players who had the assurance of being fast-tracked into the senior club set up by Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the team’s Chairman.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said that he might fast track the young talent to the first squad. However, both parties didn’t agree on contract clauses. So Sancho expressed the wish to explore other options.   

It was just hours before City departed for a tour of the USA in 2017 that Sancho made up his mind that he needed a new challenge. Rather than boarding that plane to the States, he informed their manager Pep Guardiola that he would not be signing a new deal with them. He instead trained in Manchester with the youth team he had belonged to up to then and turned down the chance to be aggregated to the first team upon their return.   

“In the last two or three weeks he didn’t appear in the training sessions. He should come but he didn’t,” said Guardiola. “We tried a lot. We met the father and his manager but if the player says ‘no, no, no, no, no’, what can we do?”   One year later, Sancho did go Stateside, albeit in a Black and Yellow jersey, and he faced City in a friendly. “I had a point to prove and I think I did well,” he said after BVB’s 1-0 win in Chicago.  

4. Raised in the London suburbs, Jadon Sancho didn’t have football playgrounds around: 

He didn’t let that stop him from kicking the ball in the streets and back alleys. “After school, I just wanted to play football. All around me, there were people who did bad things, but I never wanted to deal with them,” Sancho said.   

Born and raised in the Kennington suburb of London, there was nowhere else to kick a ball about – but that would not temper his desire.  

The footballer has his head screwed on and admits it would have been easy to slip into less savoury surroundings.   “What might have happened if I hadn’t [focused on football] is with me all the time,” he told the BBC

5. Impressively, Jadon Sancho left his family at the age of 12 to live and play football in Watford’s Academy:

At the age of 12, the English footballer left his family home in south London – and a daily four-hour commute – to board in the club’s Harefield Academy in Uxbridge, where his only focus was football.  

Louis Lancaster, his coach in Watford’s academy, recalled: “Jadon was someone who needed to be challenged. Some boys are scared of moving up a year, but he embraced it. That was one thing that separated him from the others. As a coach you can measure how many passes they make, how many shots they take, how far they run, but it’s the immeasurable qualities that make the difference.”   Sancho had that drive, determination and ambition even at such an early age.  

Louis Lancaster, his coach in the youth academy praised the young player’s determination. “I asked him, ‘What’s the dream?’” Lancaster told Sky Sports. “He looked me in the eye and said he wanted to play for one of Europe’s top clubs and represent his country to make his family proud.” He achieved both when he was still 18.    

6. Jadon Sancho didn’t fail to impress in Dortmund:

Therefore, his efforts came to fruition when he registered three goals and one assist in 3 league games. Thanks to this, the 20 year old was named Bundesliga’s player of the Month of October.   

7. He is proud of his number 7 jersey in Dortmund: 

Even though the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Michael Zorc held the number before, it doesn’t intimidate the young player. “I would have taken any number but getting seven was a big boost to my confidence. It is about coming here and proving myself. That is why I am here” Said Sancho to the BBC. 

8. The pro-footballer helped his National Team to qualify for the round of 16 for the U17 World Cup in India in 2017:

Although the English footballer wasn’t able to finish the competition, England went on to win the title. Therefore, his gold medal was mailed to him in Dortmund.

9. Why Jadon Sancho is such an asset to Dortmund:

Sancho’s great dribbling ability and goal scoring prowess first came to light at Watford, the club he joined as a seven-year-old. Chelsea and Arsenal were two clubs who quickly came knocking, but found the door locked until Sancho turned 14. That is when Manchester City was able to convince him to turn his back on the capital and move north.   

“He had this flair, creativity and imagination and a bit of street football within him,” said Mark Burton, City’s youth phase coordinator to The Mirror.   

“Sometimes he goes off the cuff. What we gave him was a bit of discipline within his play but without hopefully killing his flair. We surrounded him with better players that pushed him and put him in an environment that probably got him closer to seeing what professional football looked like.”     

10. Before representing his country, Sancho was named in Southwark’s London Youth Games Under-11 team by Sayce Holmes-Lewis:

One of the Top Facts about Jadon Sancho is that on a fortunate day, the South London boy Sancho visited his best friends, Reiss Nelson and Ian Carlo Poveda (who plays in Man City at the time of writing). Both friends were living near his home in London, and they were all going out to play soccer. When playing soccer with other friends as rivals, The area was stormed by a certain London coach named Sayce Holmes-Lewis. He took an interest in the kids. Speaking of what he saw, Holmes-Lewis admitted: “I thought these boys are mad. They were just making their opponent look stupid with their nutmegs and telepathic connection in their skills.” Holmes-Lewis not only hyped the boys, but chose to use his football connections to provide them a career opportunity. 

Together with his childhood friend Reiss Nelson, they won the tournament in 2011 and left a big impression, not only on their coach.   

“Jadon and Reiss were both phenomenal players. You knew they would go into the professional game. They were different from anything out there and had this ability to manipulate the ball at a young age. At times, because of their friendship, it was telepathic between them on the pitch. 

Jadon was fearless on the pitch when he was in his groove. Growing up in that area of Southwark you had to have something about you to be able to play.”   

11. Jadon Sancho joined Watford at the age of seven:

He was able to do so with all the support he and his friends had received from Holmes-Lewis. Due to difficulties with a 21.6 mile ride from Kennington to Watford Football Club Training Ground, the young man had to personally request his accommodation from Watford. 

So, it was decided that in addition to continuing his education, he would attend Watford’s partner school, the Harefield Academy, as a boarding student. 

12. Impressively, at the age of 11, Jadon Sancho began to turn down the chances of joining Arsenal:

This was just because he preferred Watford’s setup, which allowed him to practice more frequently and go to school. This was a time when he started to prove to his academy how brilliant he was. As he entered his mid-teen years, Sancho started the habit of going through Ronaldinho and Neymar’s YouTube videos. He did more of that than concentrating on his school work at Watford. “Each time I walk past his screen, you’ll see a page which shows clips of Ronaldinho or Neymar doing skills,” says Louis Lancaster, Watford’s then under-15s coach. 

And those who knew Sancho back then would tell you that we always called him a “ball entertainer” who had similar attributes to the players he adored. 

13. German Bundesliga club:

Leaving his mom and his sisters behind him was so tough for Sancho, who had traveled with his dad Sean to finish his German deal. “I miss them a lot, but I wanted to do what’s best for me. I felt like moving to Germany was the best thing for my career” said Jadon Sancho as he once narrated his Story. 

Sancho signed for the German Bundesliga club  on 31 August 2017 for a fee estimated to be £8 million in the region and was instantly included in the first team. He later said that he was sure that he would make a move abroad because of his prior experience of relocation to Watford and Manchester City. Sancho made his club debut against Eintracht Frankfurt on 21 October, coming as a substitute with six minutes left of the match, becoming the first Englishman to play the Bundesliga match versus Dortmund. 

Having signed a new deal to keep him in the club until 2022, Sancho enjoyed a good October 2018 by being appointed Bundesliga Player of the Month, registering three goals and an assist in just three league games. Among his goals for the month was a brace in a draw against Hertha BSC, who saw him become the first player born in the 2000s to score twice in a single Bundesliga match and the youngest ever to be a Dortmund player.

14. Political views:

The pro-footballer produced his first career hat-trick last year on 31 May 2020 in a 6-1 victory over SC Paderborn. 

The English winger for German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, scored his first goal and then stripped to show the “Justice for George Floyd” message, an African-American man who had died the past week after a police officer had held his knee on Floyd’s neck until he became unconscious. 

15. Sancho has been capped by England’s youth teams at under-16, under-17 and under-19 levels: 

In May 2017, Sancho was a member of the England Under-17 Team, which got to the final of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship, and one of the Top Facts about Jadon Sancho was that he was appointed player of the tournament for his performance. In September 2017, Sancho was named to England’s squad for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, but the new German club resisted the call-up. At the end of the day, the two parties reached an agreement where he would be available for the group stages of the tournament, but his participation was not assured if England made progress into the knock-out rounds. He netted twice in England’s first U17 match on 8 October 2017. On 16 October, during the British round of 16 tie versus Japan, he was withdrawn from the competition by Borussia Dortmund. On 2 November 2017, Sancho joined the UK U19 squad for the first time in the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification matches against the Faroe Islands, and the Bulgarian Group 8 host nation team. He made his first U19 start in a 6-0 victory against the Faroes, lasting seventy minutes before being replaced by Ben Brereton; he substituted Brereton in the 66th minute in a win over Iceland, which made it to the elite stage. He produced the only goal of the match against Bulgaria to help England take the lead in their group. As a substitute for Brereton, Sancho scored the last of the goals in England’s 4-1 victory over Hungary in the first game of the elite round on 21 March 2018.

16. Personal hobbies:

Getting to know Jadon Sancho’s personal life is going to help you get a full picture of him. Starting off, he’s someone who has a determined, motivated, competitive character. Right from his city days, Sancho has proved to the world that he definitely loves challenges. His appearance among his peers is the beginning of something vibrant and tumultuous. Besides soccer, Sancho also likes to sing rap music. The Englishman’s talent was first discovered when he and Aubameyang danced to the parody music ‘Mans Not Hot’ in a car. 

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