Jadon Sancho has endured a torrid term with Manchester United since his arrival in 2021, but his nightmarish era at Old Trafford could draw to a close this summer

Borussia Dortmund are keen on signing Manchester United flop Jadon Sancho for a third time, club chief Lars Ricken has confirmed. The English winger, who cost £73m when he joined in 2021, has endured a torrid spell at Old Trafford.

He has managed just 12 goals in 83 appearances for United and has spent the last two-and-a-half seasons away on loan. Sancho spent the second half of the 2023/24 campaign at Dortmund, before moving to Chelsea last season.

Chelsea had been obligated to make that deal permanent but paid a penalty fee to withdraw from that agreement. Sancho has since been at Aston Villa but has found the net just once during his time in the Midlands.

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With his contract set to expire this summer, and United opting against activating an option to extend it by a further season, he looks all but set to depart the club. Dortmund managing director Ricken has now revealed that Sancho is among several potential targets for the German outfit.

Speaking to Sport Bild, he said: “We are currently looking at a lot of players and analysing them. We check whether they can make us better.

“We are doing the same with Jadon. Of course, we are looking for an offensive player who brings quality, can help us immediately, and doesn’t require an unrealistic transfer fee.

“In defence, Niklas Süle is leaving us, and Emre Can will be out for a while. So we are thinking about that area as well.”

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Sancho has endured a difficult campaign with Villa, having made just 17 starts across all competitions. His sole goal came in a 1-0 away victory against Fenerbahce in the Europa League.

However, speaking earlier this year, manager Unai Emery appeared to indicate he would be receptive to making the move permanent. He said: “Not yet, but he is a fantastic player.

“Hopefully he can help us by increasing his qualities in our structure like he is doing. He will need another contract, and maybe it could be here.

“If he plays his best football, we will want him. But also other teams could be involved in the interest for him.”

Reflecting on Sancho’s performances for Villa, Emery added: “The first part of the season was not enough. He was working and trying, but not achieving the performance we needed.

“Now he is getting better. He is getting the challenge for him and us.”

Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has new contract until the summer of 2026 with the club holding an option for a further season

Manchester United have tied up the first piece of business ahead of an important summer with Harry Maguire signing a new deal. The England international’s new contract runs until the summer of 2027, with the club boasting the option of a further year.

With so much still to be decided, it’s an important step in the right direction. United have a lot to sort out between now and the end of the season, with Champions League football likely to have a major say on transfers and potentially the new manager.

As things stand, Michael Carrick has guided the club into third place, and are among the favourites to return to Europe’s elite competition. After Maguire’s new deal, the Manchester Evening News looks at four priorities for United to address:

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Appoint a permanent manager

Manchester United are in the driving seat for Champions League football and if Carrick is able to secure that objective, it’ll be a major feather in the interim head coach’s cap. The club are yet to appoint a permanent successor to Ruben Amorim, with Carrick overseeing proceedings until the end of the season.

The former United midfielder has done an impressive job since taking over on a temporary basis and there’s plenty of clamour for the 44-year-old to be given the role permanently. The club hierarchy need to make a call on who’s going to lead the club quickly if they want to get ahead of their Premier League rivals in the transfer market this summer.

It’s likely to be a slow start to the transfer market with the world’s best players in action at the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. But United need a clear plan in place, with a manager’s vision in order to get the best out of the window.

Tie down Kobbie Mainoo

One player who has excelled since Carrick has taken charge of the club is Kobbie Mainoo and the United academy graduate is yet to sign a new deal at Old Trafford.

His reintegration into the first-team set-up will give the club a major boost in any potential transfer talks. The club cannot afford to let a talent like Mainoo leave the club, given he epitomises the United DNA.

His current deal expires in the summer of 2027, though the club have the option of a further year, with talks reportedly underway regarding a new five-year deal. They need to get it done.

Address Marcus Rashford situation

It’s been pretty bittersweet for some United fans watching Marcus Rashford excel while on loan with Barcelona, with the La Liga club agreeing an option to sign the England international.

There are plenty of conflicting reports regarding his future at both the Nou Camp and Old Trafford. There are some suggestions that Rashford will be allowed to leave United regardless this summer, but want a permanent sale, whereas Barcelona are looking for another loan.

United are well within their right to try and maximise the transfer fee obtained from Rashford this summer, and his fine performances in Spain certainly help that cause.

Sign Casemiro’s replacement

Brazilian midfielder Casemiro announced he’ll be leaving Manchester United this summer and the club know they need to sign a replacement. Elliot Anderson, Adam Wharton, Sandro Tonali and Carlos Baleba are just some of the names linked with a move to Old Trafford, with all four set to demand huge transfer fees.

Simply put, United cannot afford to sign any duds, as they have in the past. The return to the Champions League offers the club a real opportunity to kick on and rebuild, but know they have to comply with the new SCR rules.

Tonali, Anderson and Wharton would all be brilliant additions, but United’s transfer chiefs know they need to get the best value for money.

The £30.6 million Bedworth Physical Activity Hub is now open, replacing a centre which dated back to the 1970s.

The new facility was funded by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Sport England, in partnership with operator, Everyone Active.

Facilities include a 25 metre pool and a learner pool with a movable floor. A 100-station gym with Life Fitness and EGYM equipment; a group exercise studio and a four-court sports hall.

This is the eighth Everyone Active facility to offer a reformer Pilates studio, which will be available as part of the You+ Ultimate wellness membership.

Other facilities include a wellness hub, meeting rooms and a grab and go cafe.

An external sports pitch is due to open in September, which will be followed later by a skate park and learn to ride facility.

Paul Dowling, Everyone Active’s regional director, said: “Bedworth Physical Activity Hub offers something for everyone, no matter what your age, interests or ability.

“This centre will serve the health and wellbeing of local people for many years to come and we’ve already had a fantastic response from the community. Customers have been able to try out new activities for the first time such as reformer and group exercise classes or benefit from our state-of-the-art gym and swimming pool.”

The facility supports the Passport to Leisure Scheme which gives eligible residents access to free or concessionary rates on a range of sports and leisure activities at the four Everyone Active centres in the area.

The centre also offers targeted swimming sessions such as women-only swims and adult and family quiet swims, which can provide additional support for neurodivergent individuals by reducing noise levels and creating a calm environment. A range of swimming lessons are on offer – including for babies with their caregivers; adult beginners and adult improvers.

In order to cater for the growing interest in training among younger children there are supervised gym sessions for 11- to 13-year-olds; gym introductions for 11- to 15-year-olds and parent supervised gym sessions. 

Sustainability is at the heart of the new site’s design, with energy-efficient measures such as pool covers, air source heat pumps and rooftop solar panels helping to maximise the use of green energy.

French sports fans normally swell with pride when their famous footballers, rugbymans and Olympians step out in the bleu, blanc et rouge. But when a dubious Équipe de France appeared at the Santarem Cricket Ground in Portugal on Sunday, few in France were behind them – not even their government.

The French sports ministry confirmed in a statement that France Cricket has not held official status since January 1 and therefore is “not legally authorised, under French law, to organise official national competitions, to award national titles, or to designate national teams”.

And yet there they were, taking part in an International Cricket Council tournament that runs through Thursday.

Read moreFrance Cricket faces power struggle as government backing hangs in the balance

France Cricket only held official status by virtue of an agreement with the French Baseball and Softball Federation (FFBS), which expired at the end of last year.

The website of the International Cricket Council (ICC) – the sport’s global governing body – notes that France must have government recognition to qualify as a member. An account of France Cricket’s history that has not been updated since 2016 reads: “France Cricket had to rejoin the FFBS … to comply with ICC requirements concerning government recognition.”

France Cricket is due $560,000 in development funding from the ICC for the period 2026-2027 and reported having made $328,172 in non-ICC income during the previous period.

Le rebel tour

France Cricket has long sought to become a fully independent federation in its own right, free from the FFBS umbrella and directly recognised by both the French government and the ICC. The signature of France Cricket chairman Prebagarane Balane is on the final agreement between France Cricket and the FFBS – which applied from December 2022 to December 2025 – but it specifies that France Cricket must first obtain official recognition, or agrément, from the sports ministry before attempting to be an independent federation: “Obtaining the ministerial agrément referred to in Article L.131-8 of the Sports Code is a mandatory prerequisite.”

“We are still waiting for agrément,” France Cricket acknowledged, according to the minutes from a January 30 meeting.

Minutes from a March 13 meeting in the presence of Jubaid Ahamed, president of the French National Teams Committee, noted attempts to arrange talks with the sports ministry and claimed: “The agrément procedure or ministerial delegation have no bearing on France Cricket’s ability to organise federal competitions.”

Those same notes announce plans for three Equipe de France national teams: The men will go on tour to Portugal, the women will begin training at the start of April and the under-19s will train every Sunday morning at Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris. 

In an email to those involved in the Portugal competition dated March 19, seen by FRANCE 24, Balane was defiant. He said, “France Cricket is a recognised national federation and fully authorised to field a national team.” 

Read moreAllegations of fake matches, murky finances plague cricket in France

The French government’s position was already public by that point. 

A report in The Cricketer magazine cited correspondence from France’s sports ministry to a dissatisfied cricket club saying that, under the French Sports Code, France Cricket may not use official designations including “Fédération française de cricket”, “Fédération nationale de cricket” or “Équipe de France de cricket” (France national cricket team). 

“France Cricket has neither ministerial agrément nor a delegation [to run cricket],” the sports ministry confirmed in their statement to FRANCE 24 on March 25.

Spot the difference

Yet on April 5 – at the start of the T20i series between France, Portugal and Norway – “FRANCE” was clearly emblazoned across the blue, white and red kit of the senior men’s team. The French flag and France Cricket’s cockerel logo appeared on hats and shirts. Match results were diligently added to France’s tally on the official ICC website under the French flag and the name “France”.

The only difference to normal proceedings: on a YouTube stream set up by hosts Portugal, France was labelled as “France XI” (a reference to the 11 players on a cricket team). A person familiar with tournament preparations confirmed that France Cricket asked to field its team as such.

At the venue, a printed sign reading “France” had “XI” added beneath it in pen.

Read moreFrench women’s cricket team disbands after probe into fake matches

‘High criminal risk’

“The fact of organising international competitions knowing that the legal framework has collapsed constitutes a management fault on the part of the director,” assessed Jim Michel-Gabriel, barrister at the Paris Bar and founding president of the Association of Sports Agents’ Lawyers.

By losing its FFBS affiliation, France Cricket also lost its federated insurance contract, he pointed out – so players taking the field in Portugal do so without injury cover.

“Without the agrément, the association can no longer guarantee players for bodily injury,” he wrote in an email, noting that France Cricket could face insolvency if a serious incident led to major compensation claims.

Management also risks personal civil liability for fielding national or international competitions without the legal shield of a delegated federation, he said, or could even be held criminally responsible. Under the Sports Code, “the administrator or director of any legal entity” that uses official appellations without authorisation could be charged a €7,500 penalty.

“It would be very surprising if, in the absence of delegation … ‘France Cricket’ or ‘France XI’ could compete officially under the ‘France’ banner, which could be confused with the banner of a recognised federation,” said Paris lawyer Fabienne Fajgenbaum.

“France Cricket faces a convergent set of legal risks, primarily criminal and institutional, linked to the exercise of rights reserved for delegated federations,” she added, saying such behaviour put it at “high” to “very high” risk of legal exposure to criminal liability, civil liability and administrative misconduct.

Moreover, she said, these practices undercut its chances for official recognition.

According to an initial assessment, Isabelle Wekstein-Steg, a lawyer specialising in sports at Paris cabinet WAN Avocats, said the use of “France XI” does not appear to violate the French Sports Code, which prohibits unrecognised bodies from using designations including, “French National Team.” But she said that if a court were to determine that the team was being presented as a national team, it could be considered a violation of the code regardless of its name.

Also on the line in Portugal was ICC competition money.

The ICC recognises all 20-over matches between associate members as ranked international matches: Perform well and you climb the rankings. Perform badly and you drop.

The top 60 nations in the men’s rankings are remunerated: “France” was at 52nd before the tournament began, a rank worth $13,500 in bonus funding; the prize halved at rank 55, which is where France found itself after two losses on the first day. But this source of funding remains modest for an ICC member running a total budget of about $900,000.

There is, however, a bigger prize in their sights.

“France” is set for a shot at glory in European qualifiers for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028, slated for May 16-23 in Cyprus, according to an ICC press release.  

Vacuum

A potential rival emerged to vie for France’s cricket mandate – the multi-sports federation ASPTT – but pulled its candidacy amid concerns around taking on such a burden before securing ICC backing.

In its March 25 statement to FRANCE 24, the sports ministry said no federation had yet earned the delegation for cricket as of January 1. This means that cricket no longer has a recognised authority in France at all, and dozens of clubs across the country might soon struggle to secure funding.

Neither the ICC nor France Cricket responded to a request for comment. Citing an ICC source, The Cricketer reported that the matches would retain their T20 international status.

In a January 9 statement, France Cricket said no national or international authority had published a decision “withdrawing or modifying” its delegation, and that it had filed for ministerial agrément in August 2025 and was awaiting a response. “No ministerial decision calls into question either the recognition of France Cricket or its current management of the discipline,” it said.

The description on its Instagram page now reads “French cricket association”, and not “French Cricket Federation”.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) president ⁠Patrice Motsepe would ​welcome an investigation into corruption at the organisation, saying they have nothing to hide following a ​meeting with Senegalese officials in Dakar on Wednesday.

Senegal’s government last month demanded an investigation into corruption after the country was stripped of their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title by the CAF Appeal ​Board and ‌the trophy awarded to final opponents Morocco.

It follows unruly scenes in ⁠the January 18 decider in Rabat that Senegal won 1-0, but during which they left the field for several minutes in ‌protest at a late refereeing decision.

Motsepe met with officials from the Senegalese Football ⁠Federation and Senegal president Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Wednesday, where he urged unity following the fall-out from the final. He will be in Morocco on Thursday for ​a similar set of meetings.

“I would welcome any investigation into corruption ‌at CAF, be it by a government or any institution,” Motsepe told reporters. “In fact, I would encourage it. We will give them our full cooperation.

“I have been told there were problems in the past ‌and we intervened. It is not just in football, but in business and politics too. We cannot give our children the ​perception that if you want to succeed in life, be corrupt. There has to be zero tolerance (for corruption).

“That’s the best gift we can give football in Africa. Not just talking ​about corruption, but intervene, put the necessary laws (in place) and implement them.”

Motsepe would not be ​drawn on the matter between Senegal and Morocco which is now ​in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“There is nothing I can tell you that I haven’t said already 10, 15, ​20 times. You can ask me the same question 100 times, I’ll give you the same answer 100 times. I have an obligation to respect that the matter is now in front of the highest (sports) court in the world.”

Motsepe quashed any suggestion that Morocco had been treated ⁠favourably in the appeal process.

“Under no circumstances will any single country in Africa be treated more preferentially or more ⁠favourably than any other. ​That will never happen,” he said.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)