bundesliga

Jadon Sancho exclusive: "I'm just happy to be back playing football"

09.02.2024

Jadon Sancho has slotted back in seamlessly after rejoining Borussia Dortmund on a loan deal from Manchester United. bundesliga.com spoke to the English winger about his return to the German top flight...

bundesliga.com: How have the first few weeks back in Dortmund and the Bundesliga been?

Jadon Sancho: "My first weeks have been brilliant. I’ve been welcomed like family. I’m just happy to be back playing football. When I’m playing football, I’m at my happiest. I’m just grateful to be back. I miss the stadiums here. They are iconic stadiums, especially the home stadium of BVB."

bundesliga.com: It must have been quite something to step out in front of the Yellow Wall again, right?

Sancho: "It was amazing. I always get chills when I play in front of this type of crowd. They always cheer me on. Positive energy is really important for us players when we go out on the pitch, to know that everyone’s behind you 100 percent. It’s probably even gotten louder from last time I was here. I get goosebumps every time I play."

Watch: Sancho stars in Dortmund's new-look attack

bundesliga.com: What has Edin Terzić told you?

Sancho: "He just said to take it game by game - and that’s what I’m doing."

bundesliga.com: It must have helped to already know plenty of your 'new' teammates?

Sancho: "Obviously, my teammates do know me from the past. Some of the players that are here now played on other teams, so I also played against them. Some of my other teammates now, like Jamie [Bynoe-Gittens] for example, were coming up through the ranks the last time I was here. My teammates know what I can do, but also it’s a team game, so it’s not just all about me. If all of us put 100 percent in, we can get great results."

bundesliga.com: Marco Reus has clearly always been a good pal, juding from the way you connect on the pitch?

Sancho: "Yes, he welcomed me as soon as I got to Dortmund. Obviously, over the years you become closer, when you start playing regularly together. We really know what each other’s going to do - when I came back to BVB, I assisted him straight away. It’s because he understood what I was going to do, and I understood where he was going to be. So, the connection we have for each other on the field is actually pretty crazy."

Watch: Every assist between Sancho and Reus

bundesliga.com: You are on loan until the end of the season - what do you think you can achieve with Dortmund by then?

Sancho: "When I first came, Dortmund weren’t in the best position. I think if we take it game by game and keep winning step by step, I feel like we should be in the top two as a minimum and qualify for the Champions League."

bundesliga.com: Your last spell in Dortmund ended rather well, didn't it, with you winning the DFB Cup in 2021?

Sancho: "It was iconic. I have great memories of that. The whole season was actually amazing. I felt like we deserved a trophy at the end of that, so it was all worth it."

Sancho (r.) and Jude Bellingham (l.) celebrate Dortmund winning the DFB Cup in 2021. - IMAGO / Team 2

bundesliga.com: Can you tell us why you have the word 'Kennington' on your boots?

Sancho: "That’s where I grew up. I can never forget where I grew up. I always remember. That’s where it all started, me playing in the cage with my friends in my estate. That’s where all the skills came from, just playing one v ones, five v five. Cage football was all about nutmegs and embarrassing the opponent, so that’s where it all started."

bundesliga.com: You experienced both cage football and academy football, what do you think of the differences of those?

Sancho: "To be fair, cage football and academy football is very different. Cage football is freedom. You express yourself. Whereas at an academy it’s like a system. You have to do it by the rules. Or maybe however the coach wants. If the coach doesn’t like something, he might tell you off. It's lucky for me I was doing cage football till around 12 years old. I wasn’t in an academy before that."

bundesliga.com: Your old coach at Watford, David Godley, said you trained more than everyone else. What were things like back then?

Sancho: "Like I said, cage football helped me a lot through my time growing up. It becomes second nature after a while when you’ve done it for so long, especially when I was growing up, it was just football after football with my friends after school."