Bellingham commits to Dortmund, wants to end Munich hegemony
ENGLAND midfielder Jude Bellingham does not plan to leave Borussia Dortmund in summer and hopes they can end the run of serial title winners Bayern Munich.
“I will be here next season and I will be ready,” Bellingham told reporters ahead of Dortmund’s Bundesliga season finale later Saturday against Hertha Berlin.
Despite his young age of 18 Bellingham is a team leader at Dortmund. He has a contract until 2025 but has been the subject of transfer speculation.
Dortmund have not won the Bundesliga since 2012 with Munich winning the last 10 titles.
Dortmund will finish second and are 10 points behind Bayern with one game left, and Bellingham admitted they didn’t deliver in big games, lacked consistency and let in too many goals.
That is to change next term as he vowed: “We believe that next year will be better and that we will be a better team then. In the Bundesliga we showed some good performances and scored a lot of goals. Now it’s about consistency.
“Ending a series of 10 years would be something unbelievable for Borussia Dortmund and for me personally. It would be one of the biggest achievements in Europe to beat this team that has been dominating for so long.” Reserve goalkeeper Marvin Hitz meanwhile became the latest player to announce his departure, after four years at the clubs “It wasn’t an easy decision but I have decided to accept a new challenge,” Hitz said on Instagram, giving no further details.
Hitz follows another goalkeeper, Roman Bürki, striker Erling Haaland and midfielder Axel Witsel out of Dortmund.
But Dortmund have also signed three German internationals for the new season in striker Karim Adeyemi and full backs Niklas Süle and Nico Schlotterbeck.