How Juventus 'lost' Jude Bellingham in the spring of 2020

Few clubs in the world have recently had a series of supertalented young players like Borussia Dortmund.

Not only is the German giant able to bring them in, they are determined to open their wallet as much as necessary, but the club immediately pushes those players in the forefront, firmly stands behind them, and this later pays off financially as well.

This trust and confidence in the development plan was decisive for Jude Bellingham in the spring of 2020, when he was looking for a new club, to choose Dortmund over Juventus. As Gazeta dello Sport writes today, Bellingham's transfer to the Old Lady's camp was almost a done deal, but the German club managed to beat the Italians for the player's signature.

That spring three and a half years ago, the entire Bellingham family was a guest of Juventus. In the company of the club leaders, they visited the stadium, the training center, everything that should convince the young footballer and his family that Turin was the right address for him. Even the financial conditions were very good. However... The Black and Whites failed when they presented their plan for Jude to first go to Primavera, to the league of young teams, and to monitor his development there.

Shortly after that, Bellingham was contacted by Dortmund. And with the plan that was presented to the family, he decided to say NO to Juventus. The Germans showed their seriousness not only by paying Birmingham 30,000,000 euros for the young Englishman, but also by telling him that he will be immediately included in the first team and that he will be able to play in the Bundesliga immediately. Without waiting, weighing, monitoring the situation... Of course, the condition was that Jude earned that chance by working in training. But with the first team, not the youth team.

UCL: Bellingham's beauty and Valverde's 'bomb' knock down Napoli

The rest is history. Bellingham played 132 games in the black and yellow jersey, scoring 24 goals and assisting 25. And this summer, Real Madrid paid a little more than 100,000,000 euros to bring him. So, three times the sum that Dortmund gave to Birmingham FC.

In his new club, arguably the biggest in the world, Jude is shining like the biggest star from day one. On Tuesday evening, at the Maradona stadium in Naples he scored a Maradona-esque goal against Napoli in the Champions League. In total, he scored eight goals in nine games for Real. That lad from Stourbridge is yet to be talked about…