Manchester United pulled out all the stops, enlisting the help of two club legends and Sir Alex Ferguson to try and woo Jude Bellingham but were still unsuccessful.
Bellingham was the hottest prospect in world football in the summer of 2020 and had many top sides chasing his signature. He ended up leaving his hometown club Birmingham City for Borussia Dortmund, who paid £25million for his services when he was only 17 years old.
It turned out to be an astute piece of business, with Bellingham going on to contribute 24 goals and 25 assists in 132 games over the next three years. Now aged 20, he is established as one of the best central midfielders in the game since joining Real Madrid last summer for £88m.
His progress has left United with a real sense of what could have been, having tried their best to sign Bellingham, offering Birmingham £30m in January 2020. Football director John Murtough led United’s charm offensive and enlisted the help of legendary manager Ferguson and ex-players Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona when Bellingham and his family visited the club.
“It was really disappointing,” Robson told The Telegraph. “We were at Carrington and Sir Alex Ferguson was there a little earlier than I was, but Eric and I met him, and his mum and dad, and we were chatting away.
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“It was really looking promising that he was going to be signing for Manchester United... me and Eric did a rubbish job as he signed for Borussia! We thought we had him in the bag!”
As Mirror Football have previously reported, Murtough’s presentation to Bellingham was not as enticing as Dortmund’s, who emphasised the fact he would go straight into the first team and get regular game time, like Jadon Sancho had done before him, after joining from Manchester City’s academy. “Jude Bellingham confidently chose BVB and, of course, was primarily concerned with the sporting perspective that we showed him,” Dortmund's sporting director, Michael Zorc, said at the time. “He has enormous potential that we want to develop with him in the coming years.”
Manchester United used Sir Alex Ferguson and Bryan Robson to convince Jude Bellingham to join (Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)Bellingham was much more concerned with his development on the pitch, rather than any financial aspect. United offered to pay him a lot more money than Dortmund, but lost out because the German club promised him a clearer pathway.
Birmingham's former CEO Xuandong Ren has previously told Mundo Deportivo that Bellingham chose to turn down a higher salary when he snubbed United. "Jude did not make any decision based on money," he said. "They were offering much more salary compared to the rest. Maybe double. He was going to be guaranteed millions in the bank and he didn’t take it. That’s not normal for a player at all." United weren’t the only club to miss out: their crosstown rivals City also tried to lure Bellingham to join them.
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