It has just been revealed that Jude Bellingham apparently snubbed transfer talks with Manchester United prior to his moving to Borussia Dortmund because the talks clashed with his training schedule then, according to former Birmingham boss Pep Clotet.
Which only speaks well of the England international midfielder as an emerging talent at those earlier stages of his promising career even then, with Clotet the man who actually handed Bellingham his senior debut at 16 years of age. Evidently it did not take long for the highly-talented youngster to get the attention of Europe’s top clubs despite an opportunity to enter into discussions with the Premier League heavyweights from Old Trafford having been passed up because the youngster did not want to miss out on the training schedule on the pitch.
Clotet has told FourFourTwo: “One day, the CEO said, ‘Jude isn’t going to be here today, because we’ve allowed him to go to a meeting with Manchester United’ – but Jude ended up refusing it so that he didn’t miss training. He was very clear to me that his priority would be a club who offered him a way to continue his development. He wasn’t thinking about money. Dortmund offered him a way to bed himself into the Bundesliga and play in Europe, our club did a brilliant negotiation, and it was win-win for all parties.”
It was only a matter of time before Bellingham eventually left Birmingham for Dortmund in the summer of 2020, with Xuandong Ren -the Blues’ chief executive at the time – revealing that United had offered the hottest of prospects twice as much money as anybody else.
Bellingham is currently again hotly linked with United, along with Liverpool and Real Madrid, and it looks most likely that big money bids will test Dortmund’s resolve this summer as they seek to keep the 19-year-old in his current surroundings.