According to ex-Birmingham City CEO Dong Ren, Leicester City made an offer for Jude Bellingham but lost out to Borussia Dortmund..
Bellingham was in high demand after rising through the ranks at the Blues, with a number of clubs vying for his signature. Manchester United even met with Bellingham in an attempt to persuade him to make the move to Old Trafford, while Leicester and Wolves were also interested.
But the England international, who is now expected to join Liverpool in the summer, chose Dortmund over Bayern Munich and agreed to a £25 million deal in 2020.
Bellingham is now one of the world’s most promising young players, and in an interview with Mundo Deportivo, ex-Blues CEO said:
In comparison to Bayern, Dortmund, Leicester, and other clubs such as Wolves, United made the most generous offer..
Ed Woodward [then-CEO of United] was the most adamant. We sat down and discussed how we could persuade Bellingham. But Jude didn’t make any financial decisions.
They offered a much higher salary than the others. Perhaps double. He was going to have guaranteed millions in the bank, but he declined. That’s not typical of a player.”
Ren explained the lengths that United went to in a bid to convince Bellingham adding: “He sat down with Solskjaer, until Woodward brought Ferguson that day, another day to Cantona, to try to convince him..
He chose Dortmund over Bayern despite the fact that he was not certain of winning titles or money. He put it all behind his growth. How many players would do something like that? Because nothing is certain in Dortmund. It might not have worked out.”
“At the end of the day, we had the player. I could only serve as Birmingham’s CEO.
“I could tell him Jude, Manchester United offers you three times what we have, you have to go. It was a difficult situation for me because I wanted to respect his decision.”At the time, he could have gone for free, but we didn’t see any money. And we promised to let them make the decision because of their loyalty..
He had decided on Dortmund before the final three games of the season. They said they wanted to go as both a player and a family..
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