Jadon Sancho interview: England's wriggling creative talent forever on the move

Kennington, south London. An Arcadia of leafy garden squares and million-pound Georgian terraces. To the south, the Kennington Oval, home of England’s first ever international football fixture in 1870, and better known as one of the world’s finest cricket grounds. To the west, just over the River Thames, the imposing silhouette of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. To the north, the glittering totems of the Shard and the City of London beyond.

Imagine what it’s like growing up surrounded by all that power and privilege, and yet possess none of it. For just off the main road, shielded from view, lie the estates. Weathered brown brick edifices like the Guinness Trust Buildings, where Jadon Sancho grew up in the first years of this century. Where trouble is easy to come by, and money hard. This summer’s World Cup was the first he watched properly: four years ago, when England played in Brazil, he didn’t even have regular access to a television.

Fairly early in life, then, Sancho came to two realisations. The first was that his mission in life, as he put it, would be to “get my family out of that estate”. The second was that in order to get his family out, he would need to get out himself, and fast. At the age of 12, a promising youngster in the Watford academy, he left the family home for the first time to live in digs near the club training ground. And in a way, he hasn’t stopped moving since.

Whatever he’s doing, then, Sancho gives off the impression of a young man with very little time to waste. On the pitch, give him a yard and he’s gone, either side of you, sometimes both. Off the pitch, he’s not one for empty chatter. On his first press conference as an England senior player, he barely wasted a word, answering the fusillade of predictably inane questions with exactly the brevity they deserved.

It’s not that he’s shy. In fact, there’s a glassy assurance to him that belies his 18 years. “I don’t really want to talk about City at the moment, if that’s all right,” he replied in response to a question about why he left Manchester City in the summer of 2017. And that was that: subject closed. Nor would you describe him as remotely rude or truculent or taciturn. Just... to the point.

There’s a real steel there, as City found themselves just over a year ago, when they realised with horror that their precocious young winger was turning his back on them. Money wasn’t the issue: City offered him a lavish new deal, as well as a chance to push for first-team football, but Sancho wasn’t interested in hazy promises. Becoming a first-team regular could have taken a season, two, three. And when you’re 17 years old, that may as well be a lifetime.

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So Sancho went to industrial Germany, to Borussia Dortmund, where he had no heritage and no acquaintances. It wasn’t stability he was after – Lucien Favre, the current coach, is his third in just over a year – but in many ways the very opposite. For a decade, Dortmund have been nurturing some of the most exciting young attackers in Europe, from Marco Reus to Mario Gotze to Ousmane Dembele to Christian Pulisic. And Sancho, a keen student of the game, wanted a piece of the action.

Having left home at 12 and moved to Manchester at 15, leaving the country was simply the next logical step. “Leaving my Mum and my sisters behind,” was the biggest wrench, he admitted. “I miss them a lot. But I wanted to do what was best for me. It was very tough. But if you really believe in yourself, you have to do what’s best for you.”

And in just a few short months, Sancho has learned that if you believe in yourself, others will too. Being handed the No7 shirt vacated by Dembele was an early show of Dortmund’s faith in him, and this season he has broken into the first team in both the Bundesliga and the Champions League. His nine assists are the most of any player in the big five European leagues. And with Dortmund top of the league, Gareth Southgate could resist Sancho’s claims no longer. Sancho’s first move on discovering he had been called up to his first England squad was to call his parents. “I couldn’t stop smiling for the whole day,” he said.

If he plays against Croatia or Spain, Sancho will become the first player born in the 2000s to play a full international for England. And yet he joins a squad whose centre of gravity is overwhelmingly weighted in his direction. Only one player was born in the 1980s (goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, born December 1989), and Sancho is one of seven players aged 21 or younger. England’s gilded youth generation, for so long lauded as the nation’s future, are fast becoming its present.

What’s his best position? Winger, No10, free-roaming attacker without portfolio? Dan Micciche, his former England youth coach, believes his best role is on the left wing, cutting inside or going outside much like Neymar does for Brazil. Yet his ability to wriggle out of a tight spot is also handy in the centre of the pitch, whereas his vision and final ball make him a viable option as a deeper creative player.

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His German, he admitted, is still at a basic level. But his rapid footballing development is a vindication of his decision to relocate. “I’d recommend it,” he said. “If you’re ready to play abroad and you believe in yourself, why not?” Is there anything he misses? “Seeing friends. I can’t just go down the road and see my friends. But it’s what I want to do long-term. You have to do what you have to do to make myself and my family happy.”

And now, here he is: 18 years old, on the verge of an international debut, on the cusp of a dream that in time, you feel, will simply become just another milestone on the journey that has taken him from the estates of Kennington to the global stage in just a few short years. Still moving, still in a hurry: a kid with all the time in the world, and none of the patience.