Former England youth coach Kevin Betsy says Jude Bellingham turned down Manchester United due to Paul Pogba.
Real Madrid ace Bellingham famously chose Borussia Dortmund ahead of United when leaving Birmingham City.
Betsy, who worked with Bellingham as England youth coach, told AS: “You just have to look at his family. All the clubs in the country already wanted to sign him when he was 12 years old, all of them.
“City, United… they were prepared to invest a lot of money in him at that age. But Jude and his family made the decision to stay at Birmingham as the ideal club to develop before the next step. You have to be very brave to decide like that. You have to have a lot of vision and to do that at that age, when financially it was something with so much impact, it is incredible.
“This tells you the type of people they are and how they take care of their children’s development. Going to a big club early doesn’t always work. For Jude this worked perfectly. Just like later in Dortmund.
“They even went to Carrington to meet with United, but they rejected it because they wanted to play minutes now. In that United there was Pogba and other great players. Maybe he would have surprised them, but maybe he wouldn’t have had minutes. In Dortmund he was going to play every week and the next club would be one more step. Like Real Madrid. I am happy to see him in one of the best clubs in the world.”
