Former Birmingham head coach Pep Clotet has revealed that while at Birmingham, Jude Bellingham once snubbed transfer talks with United as it was at the same time as training
Jude Bellingham has become one of the most-coveted young players around Europe, with Man City, Real Madrid and Liverpool set to battle for his signature this summer. However, his former manager Pep Clotet, who gave Bellingham his senior debut at 16, has revealed that development has always been the key factor in Bellingham’s career decisions
Bellingham wanted a club that would let him develop
Bellingham was already making waves when he was still 16 playing for Birmingham. there were a lot of Premier League clubs interested in him. one of those clubs was Manchester United who tried to sign him before Dortmund.
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.”
Bellingham went on to join Borussia Dortmund in 2020 where he has flourished ever since. It has been revealed by Xuandong Ren -the Blues’ chief executive at the time- that Man Utd actually offered twice as much money as everybody else.
