According to Goal.com, after Nico Schlotterbeck suffered a serious injury, Borussia Dortmund came under pressure to strengthen before the transfer window closes, and Jadon Sancho became one of the names being discussed.

The English winger, who has worn a Borussia Dortmund shirt twice before, is currently without a club and could join on a free transfer. He is also very familiar with Dortmund. However, therein lies the problem.

Carsten Cramer, the club's general manager, said on the "Sky90" programme on Sunday that few player names generate as much excitement among Borussia Dortmund fans on social media as Jadon Sancho. That's true, but from a sporting perspective, it's hard to explain why Jadon Sancho, now 26 years old, continues to carry such high expectations. Therefore, Dortmund should not bring him back now—not because of his past, but because of his present.

Since his €85 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United in 2021, Jadon Sancho has struggled to recapture the glory of his time at Borussia Dortmund. This explains why the player with 23 England caps is now a free agent and appears to have no suitors with ambitions comparable to Dortmund.

The statistics from the past five years tell the whole story. In that time, Jadon Sancho made 184 official appearances, scoring 21 goals and providing 22 assists. He averages less than one hour of playing time per game and contributes to a goal only once every 250 minutes.

This is not a snapshot of one period but a trend that has persisted for years. Jadon Sancho gave Borussia Dortmund a boost between 2017 and 2021, but that version of him no longer exists.

Even his six-month loan spell at Dortmund in the winter of 2024 wasn't enough to change this. During that period, Jadon Sancho's inconsistency remained his defining characteristic. While he occasionally showed brilliant form in both the Champions League and Bundesliga, those good performances stood out precisely because they were exceptional—not because they were the norm for Jadon Sancho.

You cannot build a reliable team around a handful of good games. Yet this is the challenge Borussia Dortmund faces right now. After Schlotterbeck's injury, Dortmund needs pace, dynamism, and tactical depth—players who can consistently deliver these qualities. The club had hoped their new Greek winger would provide this, and his start has indeed been impressive.

But Jadon Sancho has not delivered this recently at Manchester United, at Borussia Dortmund, or during his two loan spells at Chelsea and Aston Villa. Signing a player who has been chasing good form for years is not a rational response to Schlotterbeck's injury—it's gambling on a distant past.

More importantly, bringing Jadon Sancho back would completely contradict the "new Dortmund" philosophy of avoiding complacency. Under sports director Ole Busk, the club has released players like Niklas Süle and Julian Bruma due to persistent inconsistency. Re-signing Jadon Sancho, who shares the same problem, would be no different from the return of players like Mario Götze, Shinji Kagawa, or Nuri Şahin—moves that have often ended in failure.

The argument that "Jadon Sancho could still change games with his elite potential" is not compelling enough. True, when Jadon Sancho is in good form, he can still decide matches today. But the key point is not whether a player has elite talent in theory, but how often he can actually display it.

While some Dortmund fans' nostalgia for Jadon Sancho is understandable, these expectations are unfounded because they are not based on his current sporting level. As Dortmund searches for a Schlotterbeck replacement, they should not be swayed simply because a name has a special history. If Dortmund signs a free agent, the highest price they would pay for Jadon Sancho is disrupting their original team-building strategy.

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