Borussia Dortmund midfielder and England international Jude Bellingham has already garnered interest from a host of top clubs to acquire his services. The 19-year-old has been at top form since joining the Bundesliga side, and hence is on the radars of many. The Sun now claim that Chelsea are Bellingham’s new admirers and are ready to rival Liverpool and Manchester United who are already on his trail.
Bellingham was already subject to a transfer battle this summer as Liverpool and United had lined up at the Signal Iduna Park for his signature. However, Dortmund were successful in keeping him after they had lost Erling Haaland, for only £54 million. But next summer is not going to be an easy one for the German side, since the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, United all have rolled up their sleeves to fight for the teenaged talent.
Chelsea want Bellingham as their long term replacement for Kante, Jorginho
Chelsea have already spent a whopping £271 million this summer to reinforce their squad. However, there’s still a feeling at Stamford Bridge that the club has failed to land their priority targets. One of them was a proper long term solution for their midfield. Their duo, N’Golo Kante and Jorginho’s days at the top are eclipsing and the Blues still don’t’ have their successors. A deal for Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong too couldn’t progress after he refused to leave Camp Nou.
As a result, Chelsea who have appointed Graham Potter after the firing of Thomas Tuchel want to land Jude Bellingham next summer to resolve their midfield issues once and for all. However, Liverpool and Manchester United are in the queue as well, who are searching for top quality midfielders. Liverpool have all of their elite midfielders, Thiago Alcantara , Fabinho and Jordan Henderson on the wrong side of their 30s and hence want the Dortmund teenager to join their ranks.
Moreover, the Reds had multiple approaches rejected this summer for Bellingham by his current employers. It is also being said that the midfielder himself wanted to stay in Germany for another year given he wants to travel with the England squad for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in a settled manner and with regular minutes at club football. United, who were Frenkie de Jong’s first rejection also feel Bellingham is the key overhaul their mediocre midfield.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano too provided an exciting insight on how the race to sign the 15-time-capped England international next summer. Speaking on his YouTube channel last week, Romano said:
“They [Borussia Dortmund] will try to dream about keeping Bellingham in summer of 2023, but they know it’s not going to be easy because next summer for Bellingham, there is going to be a crazy, crazy race. My sources told me, ‘Get ready’, because we had the Haaland race, with Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Man City, many clubs involved, but this Bellingham race will be many top clubs ready to do something crazy for Jude Bellingham. Many different sources told me this; to get ready for a new Haaland race.
“Liverpool signed Arthur Melo on loan, but they need a new top midfielder next summer and Bellingham can be the player, so Liverpool will try for sure. In England, all the top clubs, not just Liverpool, are tracking Bellingham. For example, this summer Chelsea didn’t move on Bellingham because they had other kinds of targets. But who knows next summer if Chelsea will decide to jump into it or not? Now with [Graham] Potter, new manager, new direct relationship with Todd Boehly. Things can change.”
The Italian also claimed that the fee to acquire the English talent would be “way beyond €100 million” since his current deal at Dortmund runs through the summer of 2025. Bellingham has been enjoying bossing the midfield at Dortmund, so far racking up 99 appearances under his belt. He further has 31 goal contributions in those 99 games through scoring 13 goals and providing 18 assists.