Jadon Sancho says he spent part of his childhood wanting to emulate Liverpool legend John Barnes.
The Borussia Dortmund wide forward was influenced by his father, a fan of the former England winger, who was a skilful, goalscoring attacker in his prime at Anfield.
Sancho is now playing a more modern version of that role, often as an inside forward for his Bundesliga side—and says he also took inspiration from one of Barcelona’s stars of recent times.
“My dad was a big fan of John Barnes. He had a couple of videos of him at home and I used to watch them a lot,” he told World Soccer Magazine.
“I used to look at Ronaldinho on YouTube. That was a big thing for me. He used to try things that no-one else would try and that made me like him a lot.
“I didn’t have a team that I supported, though. I just idolised a lot of great players.”
While Sancho doesn’t particularly lead towards any individual club, there has been speculation over which team he’ll opt to move to if he departs Dortmund.
The German club have been adamant about his £100 million-plus transfer fee and hope he’ll still be around in 2020/21, but Sancho himself remains quiet over linked to Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea.
“I don’t know what to say to that, it’s hard to say.
“That’s the future. You never know what could happen, so we will wait and see.”
