Manchester City will net a huge £11.2 million windfall from Jadon Sancho’s sale to Manchester United after their bitter rivals finally agreed a £72.9m deal with Borussia Dortmund for the England winger.
Sancho, 21, is expected to formally complete a move to Old Trafford once England’s participation in the European Championship is over, four years after leaving City for Dortmund in an £8m deal.
Under the terms of a clause they negotiated with Dortmund, City are entitled to 15 per cent of the profit of a sell-on fee for Sancho, meaning the Premier League champions will earn around £9.74m from the player’s move to their neighbours.
But, in addition to that, City will receive a solidarity payment worth £1.46m owing to the part they played in Sancho’s development, taking their total earnings from the transfer to £11.2m. Watford, Sancho’s first club, will receive a solidarity payment worth £2.19m.
Although Dortmund will cover the cost of the sell-on clause out of the money they receive from United, the Old Trafford club will pick up the bill for the £3.65m of solidarity payments to City and Watford.
It means the overall Sancho deal will end up costing United £76.55m in fees, making him the club’s third most expensive recruit of all time, just ahead of Romelu Lukaku’s £75m move from Everton in 2017 but behind Paul Pogba (£89m) and Harry Maguire (£85m).
Under the rules governing solidarity payments, five per cent of the transfer fee is divided proportionally among all clubs at which the player trained between the ages of 12 and 23. Sancho was at Watford between 12 and 15 and City between 15 and 17, which is why the Hertfordshire club receive the slightly larger amount.
Sancho – who will become the second most expensive English footballer in history after Maguire – is expected to sign a five-year contract with the option of another year worth in excess of £250,000 a week with bonuses once he has undergone a medical after the Euros.
The news brings to an end a year-long transfer saga after United refused to meet Dortmund’s £109m valuation of Sancho last summer.
United will now turn their attention to trying to sign a new centre-half, with Real Madrid’s Raphael Varane their priority target. Varane has entered the final 12 months of his contract at Real and would like to pursue a new challenge.
United have been hit hard financially by the coronavirus pandemic and any more signings after a potential centre-half purchase may hinge on the success the club has offloading players and the future of Paul Pogba.
Pogba has entered the final 12 months of his contract at Old Trafford and is being linked with Paris St-Germain and Juventus.
Solskjaer identified Sancho as a serious target as far back as early 2019 and believes the youngster is the ideal candidate to fill United’s troublesome right-wing berth in his preferred 4-2-3-1 system, although Sancho has also played on the left a lot for Dortmund.
Sancho – who has scored 50 goals and claimed 64 assists in 137 appearances for Dortmund – is widely regarded as one of Europe’s most exciting young talents, even if he has endured a frustrating time at the Euros with England so far this summer.
Despite a clamour among fans for more game time for the winger, Sancho’s only appearance at the tournament so far was as an 84th-minute substitute in the 1-0 win over the Czech Republic. He did not get off the bench during Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Germany that propelled England into the quarter-finals and a meeting with Ukraine in Rome on Saturday.
Dortmund are eyeing the England Under-21 and PSV Eindhoven winger Noni Madueke as a potential replacement for Sancho.
Like Sancho, Madueke is London born. The 19 year-old came through Tottenham Hotspur’s academy before leaving for PSV in 2019 and made his debut for England Under-21s in March.
He has scored nine goals in 31 appearances for the Dutch club and his performances have caught the eye of a number of leading European clubs.