Ex-Birmingham CEO reveals how Man Utd tried and failed to sign Jude Bellingham

The former CEO of Birmingham City has revealed exactly how Manchester United tried and ultimately failed to sign Jude Bellingham in 2020.

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At just 16 years of age, Bellingham enjoyed an incredible debut season with his boyhood club, winning the EFL Young Player of the Year award for the 2019/20 campaign.

It was abundantly clear before the season had finished that the midfielder would leave the Championship side with some of the biggest clubs in the world desperate to acquire his services.

Among those interested were United, who reportedly had a £20million bid rejected, but in the end he joined Borussia Dortmund where he has gone onto establish himself as one of, if not the best young player in world football.

It is a case of what might have been for United who would no doubt be in a much better place had they landed Bellingham two years ago for a fraction of his current value.

But as former Birmingham chief Xuandong Ren recently revealed, United’s failed move for Bellingham was not a lack of trying.

‘United made the biggest offer we received compared to Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Leicester or other clubs like Wolves,’ Ren told Mundo Deportivo.

‘Ed Woodward [then United CEO] was the most insistent. We sat down and talked about how we could convince Bellingham. But Jude didn’t make any decisions based on money.

‘They offered much more salary compared to the rest. Maybe double. He was going to have guaranteed millions in the bank and he did not take them. That’s not normal for a player at all.

‘He sat down with [then manager Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer, [Sir Alex] Ferguson and another day [Eric] Cantona, to try to convince him.

‘But before the last three games of the season he had decided on Dortmund. They told us they wanted to go as a player and as a family.

‘I could have told him, “Jude, Manchester United offers you three times what we have, you have to go”. It was a difficult position, because I wanted to respect his decision.

‘Our promise was that we would let them make the decision because of the loyalty they showed us.’

United have been linked with signing Bellingham again, though this time he’ll likely cost upwards of £100m and the Red Devils face stiff competition for his signature from the likes of Liverpool, Real Madrid and Chelsea.

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