There was a period in 2022 and 2023 where Jude Bellingham signing for Liverpool had begun to feel inevitable.
The Reds were desperate for a midfielder of the young Englishman’s ilk, and given the groundwork they were reported to be doing with Bellingham and his family, it all felt to be moving in the right direction.
Sadly, that background work failed to pay off, with Liverpool ultimately deciding that their midfield needed rebuilding to the extent that they could not spend so much of their transfer budget on one player, no matter how good he was.
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- Sadio Mane
- Gini Wijnaldum
- Andy Robertson
- Mohamed Salah
- Virgil van Dijk
- Alisson Becker
- Fabinho
- Diogo Jota
- Thiago Alcantara
- Ibrahima Konate
Bellingham clearly preferred a move to Real Madrid anyway, and having joined Los Blancos for a fee which could rise to £115m, he has since gone on to become the player everyone in football knew he would.
That has continued into this summer, when the now 23-year-old has been one of the best players at the World Cup, driving England to the semi-finals alongside Harry Kane. But though a move to Liverpool now seems further away than ever as a result, Bellingham will surely want to try his hand in the Premier League one day, and the Reds should be at the front of the queue.
Bellingham surely wants to play in the Premier League
While the pull of playing for Real Madrid is big for any footballer, and Bellingham will not relinquish that while he is still one of the main men at the Bernabeu, he is English at the end of the day, and whatever the size of Madrid, the Premier League is currently the place to be.
Having come through in the Championship with Birmingham City before his 2020 move to Borussia Dortmund, Bellingham has never played in the Premier League, and, as he shines with England, there must be a part of him which dreams of returning home.
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The former Dortmund man has now been at Madrid for three years already, and though there is much more for him to achieve in the Spanish capital, there will surely come a point within the next two to three years where he feels the pull of trying something different.
That is where Liverpool’s hard work with the Bellingham family in 2022 and 2023 could really pay off.
They were not the only Premier League team in for him, with Manchester United coming closest to getting him from Birmingham before Dortmund finalised that deal, but Bellingham actively turned United down, and though the Red Devils look better under Michael Carrick, they are not an especially attractive club.
Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea would doubtless be trying if there was a whiff of Bellingham being available, but the Solihull native has already expressed a disdain for City as a ‘plastic’ club, and though the other two clubs would be contenders, there is no greater anti-plastic team in the land than Liverpool.
Things could line up for Bellingham move
Clearly, this is not something which is imminent, but Liverpool fans should certainly not have given up on seeing Bellingham turn out for them in the future.
His potential arrival could also be linked to the situation of Dominik Szoboszlai, who many fear has plans to run down his contract and join Madrid in 2028.
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If that does happen, there could be a possibility of Bellingham coming the other way. The pair are similar players, and Szoboszlai’s exit would free up a spot for someone new to come in and dominate Liverpool’s midfield.
Bellingham’s current contract runs until 2029, and though he could well sign another in the meantime, if he does not, the transfer fee would surely be within Liverpool’s reach one year earlier.
Still only turning 25 in the summer of 2028, Bellingham would be a good age to go on and have a proper career at Anfield, giving him the full taste of the Premier League after his adventures in Germany and Spain.
So, while Bellingham very much feels like a Real Madrid player as he shines at the World Cup with England, Liverpool fans should have one eye on the future, when it is not a stretch to suggest that he could yet become the main man in their midfield.
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