Jude Bellingham could have well been a Bianconeri before moving to Real Madrid this summer on a bumper contract. Incidentally, Juventus icon Alessando Del Piero had praised the talent just earlier for his exploits against Napoli.
The background behind the English prodigy’s visit to Juventus’ Continassa complex back in the spring of 2020 has been revealed by La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Tuttomercatoweb).
As per the report, Bellingham, along with his parents visited Juventus’ academy and training facilities as they had strongly considered the choice to move to Italy when he was still at Birmingham City. However, he ended up choosing Borussia Dortmund over the Turin giants, solely for one reason.
Bellingham vicino alla Juventus nel 2020: a 16 anni visitò Vinovo e la Continassa insieme alla famiglia 🏴 ⚪️ ⚫️https://t.co/O4FeXFRE4R
— GOAL Italia (@GoalItalia) October 4, 2023
Juventus’ offer put forth was reportedly attractive from a financial standpoint, with a place in the Juventus U23 team secure if he were to join, before he would gradually be incorporated into Massimiliano Allegri’s first-team setup. In contrast, Dortmund’s offer displayed a straight path into the BVB first team aged just 17 under coach Edin Terzic, signing him for €30m.
Once in an interview to UEFA, Bellingham cited Dortmund’s track record with young players as the decisive factor.
“It was just the track record of the club with the young players. Obviously, I’d had a lot more time to actually make my decision because I had lockdown. It was tough because I knew I had a really big decision coming up and I had a lot of time to make it. When I watched the team, I felt like there were places I could really improve Dortmund and where Dortmund could really improve me. And the more I watched the team, I thought: ‘Yeah, I’ve got a chance here’,” he said.
In the absence of veteran Marco Reus and Mats Hummels, Bellingham went on to captain Dortmund when he was just 19. The now 20-year-old joined Real Madrid for €103M in the summer.
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