When Jude Bellingham was at Birmingham City, Manchester United made twice as much as the next-closest bid, but they were unable to secure the midfielder.
The young star left the West Midlands team in 2020 to join Borussia Dortmund, and since then, he has seen a stratospheric ascent, gaining both the Bundesliga club leadership and full England honours.
Jude Bellingham is expected to go to a big European competitor next year after a string of impressive World Cup performances; Liverpool and Real Madrid are both said to be interested in signing him.
The 19-year-old was formerly aggressively pursued by United when playing in the English lower levels, but they finally failed to convince their target with a package, according to former Birmingham manager Xuandong Ren.
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“[Former managing director] Ed Woodward was the one who was most insistent,” he told Mundo Deportivo. “We sat down and talked about how we could convince Bellingham.
“Manchester United offered twice as much as the rest of the clubs [chasing him]. They even brought him together with [former manager Alex] Ferguson, [Eric] Cantona and [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer.
“But Jude did not make any decision based on money. 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. It was a difficult position, because I wanted to respect his decision. Our promise was that we would let him make the decision because of the loyalty he showed us.”
