Jadon Sancho’s nightmare at Manchester United is finally over as the winger completed his return to German giants Borussia Dortmund.
The 23-year-old has signed on loan until the end of the season and he’ll be eager to prove he is indeed one of England’s brightest young talents.
His journey at Manchester United – who he joined from Dortmund in 2021 – was severely curtailed after a highly-publicised fallout with manager Erik ten Hag.
HITC Football broke the news at the beginning of January that Sancho was nearing an escape route to his old club in the Bundesliga, with sources telling us that he wasn’t prepared to make-up with Ten Hag.
This came after making just three 2023/24 Premier League appearances before being bombed out of the United first-team.
Things gathered pace fairly quickly and after a very short delay as told by HITC Football, sources then revealed on January 9 that Sancho’s loan to Dortmund had been agreed.
The official announcement came yesterday and Sancho stressed how delighted he was to be back at his old stomping ground for the remainder of the campaign.
The former Manchester City graduate does have a huge challenge ahead of him, however. He’ll need to get match fit fairly quickly and rediscover some of the magic he produced during his first spell at the Westfalenstadion.
Failure to do so and he might be heading back to Old Trafford in the summer without really kickstarting his promising career.
Many have returned to Dortmund for a second spell and just couldn’t live up to the standards they set themselves first time around.
So here, HITC Football are going to take a closer look at those players which can only serve as a big warning to Sancho and his next five months in Germany.
Nuri Sahin
Central midfielder Nuri Sahin burst onto the scene at Borussia Dortmund at just 16 in 2005, setting records as the youngest to play and score in the Bundesliga at that time.
He would go on to rack up 22 league assists in just three seasons after short loan with Feyenoord and won the Bundesliga 2010/11 player of the season as Dortmund won the top-flight title.
Sahin left for around €10m in 2011 to Real Madrid and after a short stint with Liverpool, Dortmund decided to loan him back to the club.
The Turkey international ended the 2012/13 season very well and played 34 league games the following season, without really setting the heather alight.
But it was from the 2013/14 campaign when things turned sour for Sahin at Dortmund. He was beset with injury after injury for the next few campaigns.
Tendon irritation in his knee was Sahin’s main concern and he was only able to play a further 39 times in the Bundesliga for Dortmund between 2014 and 2018.
Shinji Kagawa
Shinji Kagawa was an extremely exciting young talent to watch in the early 2010s at Dortmund.
The attacking midfielder lit up the Bundesliga by firing in 29 goals in just two seasons with the German giants before that form earned him an initial £12m switch to Manchester United.
Kagawa struggled at Old Trafford and took the same route Sancho has this month by heading back to Dortmund to reignite his career.
The Japanese star won three major honours first time around but couldn’t bring success back to Dortmund when he returned.
On an encouraging personal note, Kagawa scored 19 goals in his first two seasons back. However, the following three campaigns were barren for the ex-Cerezo Osaka youngster.
Just 12 goals in the next three seasons were netted and his final one at the Westfalenstadion was marred by the manager Lucien Favre’s preference to play Marco Reus in Kagawa’s favoured attacking midfield position.
Mario Gotze
Mario Gotze will forever be remembered for THAT goal for Germany in the 2014 World Cup Final against Argentina.
And while Dortmund fans will look at back at his first spell with incredible memories, they’ll also remember Gotze’s failed return.
After a controversial move to Bayern Munich that is unfortunately for the Westfalenstadion faithful a well-trodden path, Gotze spent three years with the most successful club in Germany.
He would add a further three Bundesliga titles to his two won at Dortmund but decided to head back to the Black & Yellow and make amends with disgruntled fans.
Gotze was nowhere near the player he used to be. A mixture of poor goals and assists productivity and a mysterious illness later diagnosed as myopathy were to blame.
Gotze’s 2018/19 season of 14 goal contributions in 26 league games was his best effort but his three other years back at Dortmund were pretty woeful and the Memmingen native would later depart for PSV Eindhoven in 2020.
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