Real Madrid are getting increasingly confident of beating Liverpool to the signing of Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham.
Madrid and Liverpool have appeared to be the two front-runners in the race to sign Bellingham for some time. At one stage or another, both clubs have been claimed to be leading that race.
But now, as per journalist Miguel Delaney for his ‘Reading the Game’ newsletter, Madrid think they’re close to taking the cake.
“Any new Madrid manager could well have Jude Bellingham as the star act in his team. An admittedly underwhelming Champions League appearance in London [against Chelsea on Tuesday] meant another round of speculation, but also some concrete movements and meetings,” Delaney writes.
“Madrid still think they are well out in front as regards Bellingham’s signature, but nothing is yet signed. Florentino Perez wants to bring in a forward alongside him – with the two essentially succeeding Luka Modric and Karim Benzema – and is increasingly letting it be known he would be intrigued by Erling Haaland over Kylian Mbappe.”
Bellingham making clubs wait
At this point, who you think Bellingham will end up joining boils down to who you believe. While Delaney reports in Madrid’s favour today, it was only Wednesday that Football Transfers claimed the same was true for Liverpool.
And don’t rule out Manchester City, either. The Premier League champions have been something of a silent lurker throughout this saga.
Personally, we still think Liverpool seem like that most likely winners. Knowing what we do about Bellingham and also the Reds’ sheer desperation to bring him to Anfield, we still think they’ll get the job done.
But as we learnt just a few weeks ago, you never know with Madrid. Although there’s potential managerial upheaval at the moment they have a bigger pull than just about any other club on the planet. You couldn’t blame Jude for being attracted to that.
To that end, Madrid were reportedly in meetings with Bellingham’s father earlier in the week. That doesn’t necessarily mean all that much though, Liverpool will be meeting with him, too.
In the end, we’ll just have to wait. We’ve never known such a long and drawn out transfer saga involving Liverpool. Bellingham is worth it – as Kieran Trippier has pointed out, he’s ‘world-class.’ But we’d like this one to come to a conclusion soon, whatever that may be. Madrid just won’t leave us be, will they.