Bellingham is suitor-ed and booted
JUDE BELLINGHAM will quit Birmingham City at the end of the season... and is conducting a beauty parade before deciding his next destination.
The hottest prospect in English football is up for grabs and a cluster of the continent’s top clubs have already beaten a path to his door.
The Blues hierarchy have reluctantly decided to cash in on the 16-year-old West Midlands-born prodigy and have agreed on a fee with four interested parties.
And now it is up to the club’s youngest-ever player (above) to decide where the next chapter of his career will be.
Sunday People Sport revealed exclusively 12 months ago that Borussia Dortmund had already courted his dad, Mark.
And we also detailed how a £12.5million offer had been tabled by Manchester United when the transfer window opened in the new year.
Options
The Bellingham family are now considering their options, as Chelsea and Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich are also in the frame for the youngster’s services.
All interested parties have met Birmingham’s valuation – believed to be starting at £15m and rising to around £30m with achievement-related addons. And the Blues have accepted that their young star will be leaving at the end of the current campaign.
His mum and dad were seen leaving Manchester United’s training base earlier this week after being shown around the club’s headquarters at Carrington.
Stories emerged last week that Dortmund had already sealed a deal but those reports were premature, with the teenager still undecided where his future lies.
Wherever Bellingham ends up, none of the clubs will allow him to return to St Andrew’s to continue his footballing education.
He is too hot a property for that. But his family will have one major issue to consider before they make their choice. Bellingham has a younger brother, Jobe, who is also part of Birmingham’s academy and picked up his second England cap at his age group in the past couple of weeks.
If teen sensation Bellingham does decide his future lies in Germany, his parents will need to consider how best to look after his younger sibling.
Birmingham’s paymasters will be grateful for the cash on two fronts – to help them with profit and sustainability issues and also to bankroll a promotion push next season.
Although the club is bankrolled by a mysterious behind-the-scenes donor – via Birmingham International Holdings Ltd, a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – the losses are now stacking up.
An injection of cash would therefore be warmly welcomed.
Bellingham, a boyhood Blues fan, would be able to leave with his head held high. He has both broken into the first team spectacularly and left behind a legacy that should help his beloved club in the Championship next season.
When he made his senior debut in August 2019, at the age of 16 years and 38 days, he became the club’s youngest ever first-team player, breaking the record held by club legend Trevor Francis.