An ‘unforeseen delay’ costs Arsenal chance to sign Bellingham with Gunners ‘willing to pay’ £500k fee | OneFootball

Jude Bellingham could have joined Arsenal during his youth career.

Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham could have ended up at Arsenal earlier in his career but an ‘unforeseen delay’ saw the move called off, according to reports.

The England international has had a meteoric rise from his days at Birmingham City with the 20-year-old playing Championship football just four seasons ago.

Bellingham left the Blues in the summer of 2020 to join Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund for an initial £25m following a brilliant breakthrough season.

He impressed at the Westfalenstadion over three seasons to earn a move to La Liga giants Real Madrid over the summer in a huge €103m transfer, which could rise to €133.9m if add-ons are met.

And the new Real Madrid number five has taken to life at the Bernabeu like a duck to water with ten goals in ten matches in all competitions.

The Daily Mail has detailed his early career in an article and has revealed that things could’ve been different for Bellingham if Arsenal had pushed through a move for him during his time in the Birmingham youth setup.

Quoting a recruitment file on Bellingham from his time at Birmingham, which insisted the midfielder was ‘”he best player in the Championship”, the Daily Mail reveal the story of Arsenal interest in him.

The Daily Mail wrote:

Bellingham had a number of pundits purring earlier this week after producing a man-of-the-match display in a 3-1 win over Italy on Tuesday night.

Former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole commented: “He talks like a 30-year-old man. He has added so many things to his game.

“Against Scotland, he was unplayable at times. We’ve watched him develop but against Scotland, against a good team that were eight games unbeaten, he took them to the cleaners.

“He’s becoming an integral part of this team. He’s almost, alongside Harry Kane, the first name on the team sheet.”

: “Some time ago I did some analysis on him for a Championship match.

“I saw a lot of his games and I was very surprised by his ability. He’s only 20-years-old, but he plays like he is 30.

“I thought he was a normal midfielder before, but now I think he has got so much quality and ability. We can consider him to be a really big star.”