Jadon Sancho will only be allowed to leave Borussia Dortmund if a club meets their asking price and he forces the move. That is the view of German football expert Christian Falk.
Sancho is one of the hottest properties in European football after an outstanding season for Dortmund which has seen him score 17 goals and provide 16 assists.
Manchester United are understood to be leading the race for the England international, who never played in the Premier League before leaving for Germany in 2017.
However, Dortmund are keen to keep Sancho at the club for at least another season.
The asking price for Sancho is around £88m (€100m) which is comfortably within United’s reach, and Falk says Dortmund will allow the transfer to happen if two conditions are met.
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“I have heard that Borussia Dortmund is of course already talking with agents for candidates who could replace Sancho in the event of a sale,” Falk told Utdreport.
“But they are still very vague in the search. This is not a sign that the Sancho sale has so far been considered inevitable.
“The club will not sell Sancho unless the transfer fee is over 100 million Euros. All sides in the club want him to stay at least one season more.
“The €100m number is a lower limit below which there is no negotiation at all – exactly how much is required is open negotiations.
“This transfer will only happen this summer if Sancho absolutely wants to leave and brings a club who pays the transfer fee.
“Players like Emre Can, Haaland and Marco Reus are already trying to convince him to stay.”
Meanwhile, former West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop feels a move to United is the biggest platform for Sancho to shine.
“Absolutely there’s a case to be made [that Sancho should stay at Dortmund for another year],” Hislop told ESPN FC.
“At that age, at a club like Dortmund who continue to play their youth and play a style of football that suits his high-energy running style, you only see his own value going up.
“But then that’s a risk that you take and many players take in staying some place.
“How many other times could we talk about players maybe getting injured, not having the kind of seasons that they hoped, being distracted by the attention and their values going down somewhat? That’s the gamble for Jadon Sancho.
“Now, my concern just looking in from the outside is that he’s getting a little bit too big for his britches, and you wonder if Borussia Dortmund, as big a club and as good a club as they are, the fact that they continue to trail Bayern Munich season in, season out it seems, he’s not going to accept the kind of responsibility and mature the kind of way that he needs to while he’s still there.
“Maybe he needs a bigger stage, maybe he needs the brighter lights really for him to focus a bit more on what’s important. And then he progresses as many expect he would.”