Jude Bellingham broke into the Birmingham City first team at 16, but when Manchester United came calling he decided against a meeting at Old Trafford in favour of training with his boyhood side.
Former Birmingham City manager Pep Clotet, who introduced Bellingham to the first team to make him the club's youngest ever senior player, ended up handing Bellingham 41 Championship appearances in the 2019/20 season, trusting the midfielder despite his tender age.
Europe's top clubs were all targeting Bellingham at that time, each side keen to offer him a bumper contract for the future. One of those clubs was Manchester United, who tried their best to convince Bellingham to stay in England rather than move to Borussia Dortmund.
As Clotet exclusively reveals to FourFourTwo, Bellingham was even due to meet Manchester United's hierarchy that season, but refused to travel to Old Trafford because it coincided with a training session.
"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," Clotet tells FFT.
"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.”
Xuandong Ren, Blues’ chief executive at the time, later claimed that Manchester United offered Bellingham twice as much money as anyone else, even getting Sir Alex Ferguson and Eric Cantona involved to try to persuade him.
Two days before the end of the season, however, it was confirmed he’d be joining Dortmund for an initial £25 million.
Now, of course, Bellingham is once again the most-sought after player in Europe, the 19-year-old worth over £100 million as his performances in both the Bundesliga and Champions League have proved his value.
Manchester United will once again try to sign the English midfielder, but Liverpool or Real Madrid seem the most likely destinations for Bellingham at the end of the season.
However, with his contract due to expire in 2025, there is always the possibility he opts to stay in Germany, plotting his next career path with the same careful consideration he did while at Birmingham.
