Sancho success story should be thriller for Jude
WHEN Birmingham City rejected interest in Jude Bellingham in January, they knew the same clubs would come calling this summer. Blues knocked back a huge offer from Manchester United, Bellingham having earned plenty of admirers at Old Trafford in the first half of his stunning breakthrough season. Six months on and the midfielder seemingly remains the most talked-about teenager in football. Blues are well aware more bids are going to land in the coming weeks.
There is an inevitability in football that no sooner than you put the player you are proud of on show, he is being linked with a move elsewhere.
Blues’ coaches have done a brilliant job maximising Bellingham’s ability through the age groups at Wast Hills and off the pitch too – the 16-year-old having come across as level-headed and mature in interviews this season.
The hype has been endless, but it feels justified. All the signs point to him being the kind of talent that comes along once in a generation. Which is why the decision he takes this summer is so key. Having had the benefit of over 2,000 minutes of senior football already this season, Bellingham will know regular first-team minutes are vital to his development – not just in the next campaign but the following three or four years.
It has been suggested he could return to Blues on loan for 2020/21 but given the size of the potential fee being bandied about – he is expected to become the most expensive British teenager ever – clubs are likely to want an immediate return on their investment. Bellingham would reportedly be guaranteed a place in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad at United, but the youngster would do well to follow in the footsteps of an England star who took the plunge by moving away from his home country. Jadon Sancho is now reaping the rewards of joining Borussia Dortmund from Manchester City in 2017.
Handed his Bundesliga debut aged 17 – the age Bellingham turns this month – Sancho became the first Englishman to pull on the black and yellow of BVB and hasn’t looked back.
Nurtured by a club famed for the opportunities it gives to young players, Sancho is already a superstar in Germany and a world-class player in the making.
He is a success story Bellingham could emulate at a club where talent is always rewarded.
SHANE IRELAND