Will the return to Borussia Dortmund collapse? Jadon Sancho has apparently received a surprise offer

According to Foot Mercato, the attacker has received a surprise offer. The report says Al-Rayyan SC of Qatar have put a lucrative proposal to Sancho.

Sancho has been without a club since the start of July after his contract with Manchester United expired. That means Al-Rayyan SC would not have to pay a transfer fee. The side featuring Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic are one of Qatar's top clubs, although the latest of their eight league titles came back in 2016.

If Sancho opts for a move to Al-Rayyan SC, another return to BVB would be off the table. There has been speculation about that for months, and most recently a third spell for the 26-year-old at Borussia was still said to be under discussion. Bild recently reported that BVB are pursuing Sancho, but the dribbler would have to be willing to accept substantial wage cuts. Five million euros a year is said to be the maximum, which would leave Sancho well below the wages he collected from United in recent years.

Jadon Sancho: move to Qatar instead of a return to BVB?

Borussia Dortmund signed the 23-cap England international from Manchester City when he was 17, and Sancho made his breakthrough in the Bundesliga. In 2021, United paid a hefty 85 million euro transfer fee, but the London-born player never managed to live up to the high expectations at Old Trafford. Sancho then returned to BVB once before in the second half of the 2023/24 season, enjoying an encouraging half-year with the Westphalians. However, a permanent deal was not financially possible for Borussia afterwards.

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With no future in Manchester either, Sancho was loaned out again over the past two years. But he could not rediscover the form of his best Dortmund days at either Chelsea or Aston Villa. Even so, there still seem to be notable clubs interested, with Atletico Madrid in particular, alongside BVB, most recently mentioned as a possible destination.

A move to Qatar would, however, see Sancho step away from top-level football for the time being. Given the performances that once made the technician one of Europe's most exciting attacking players in Dortmund, that would be a sad sporting development in his mid-20s.