Borussia Dortmund superstar Jude Bellingham will choose Manchester City over Premier League rivals Liverpool when the time comes to leave his Bundesliga employers, former England international Gabby Agbonlahor tells talkSPORT (27 October, 9.30am).
In the last six years alone, Dortmund have made around £300 million via selling players to clubs in England’s top flight; from Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji at Manchester City to Jadon Sancho and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at Manchester United.
Then there’s Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Andriy Yarmolenko (West Ham United), Mikel Merino (Newcastle), plus Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (both Arsenal).
Bellingham, however, looks destined to be Dortmund’s biggest sale yet.
According to Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg, BVB are likely to demand a fee in the region of £85 million. Such a fee is unlikely to put off the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City, however, with the Stourbridge-born 19-year-old the sort of talent who only tends to emerge a couple of times in a generation.
Would Jude Bellingham choose Liverpool or Manchester City?
And Agbonlahor believes that, with Bellingham likely to have his pick of Europe’s very best clubs next summer, one of the game’s most complete midfielders is likely to follow in Haaland’s footsteps under Pep Guardiola.
“Don’t you think City will be like; ‘We’ll have him’?,” the former Aston Villa captain muses. “He’s going to choose City over Liverpool, isn’t he?”
Liverpool, per The Athletic, have made Bellingham their top target heading into 2023. A team crying out for an injection of youthful exuberance have a number of contingency plans, however. Benfica’s Enzo Fernandez, Wolves’ Matheus Nunes and Florentino Luis are also of interest.
“I was impressed when he was 17. Imagine (what I think about him) now that he’s 19!” Guardiola said before City’s Champions League clash with Bellingham’s Dortmund earlier in October.
“He grew up so (much). Defensively, he’s able to follow (Ilkay) Gundogan or Kevin (De Bruyne) in the pockets and win the duels.
“So he’s an exceptional player. I think everyone knows it. Not because the manager of Manchester City is going to tell you. Everybody knows it.”
With eight goals in 18 games – plus four in the Champions League – 2022/23 is already Bellingham’s most prolific campaign in senior football. And it’s not even Halloween yet.
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