It could’ve ended up being the transfer saga of the summer but it’s almost certain now that Jude Bellingham will leave Borussia Dortmund and sign for Real Madrid, rather than spending a few years at Liverpool which was part of his career plan.
According to Bundesliga expert and senior football journalist, Christian Falk, writing in his exclusive CaughtOffside Substack, there are two main reasons for that, one of which isn’t likely to please fans of the Anfield club.
The England international is still just 19 years of age and is sure to go on and have a stellar career, injuries notwithstanding. Likely a mainstay in Liverpool’s midfield if the club were able to close a deal, there has to be more than a tinge of disappoint from Jurgen Klopp and Co. that it’s not to be.
‘In the end, this saga is ending the way it had to. Liverpool don’t have the money for Jude Bellingham and Manchester City were never an option for the Dortmund player, so Real Madrid had a clear path,’ Falk wrote.
‘[…] I heard that Bellingham imagined playing for Liverpool for a few years before making the move to Real Madrid. That was the career plan but Liverpool didn’t have the money for this deal.’
Liverpool have shown over the past few seasons that they can work the transfer market well and they can’t really be blamed for not wanting to put all of their eggs in one basket.
After a below-par season by their standards, the Reds need to strengthen in a number of key areas and blowing a significant portion of their transfer budget on Bellingham just doesn’t make financial sense.
It isn’t only Liverpool’s unwillingness to pay the sizeable fee this summer that’s the issue, however.
‘Mark Bellingham, who manages his son’s career as director of his own company, ‘BelloBall LTD,’ definitely wants to finalise things this summer,’ Falk continued.
‘It concerns high commission payments and the background to this is FIFA’s new statute, which is due to come into force on October 1. It will mean that only licensed player agents can issue invoices and they would only receive a share of three percent commission from the club and three percent from the player, based on their salary. The FIFA decision also applies to family members.
‘In the case of a transfer after this summer, Mark Bellingham would either have to take the difficult license test or hire a licensed consultant, and the former is out of the question as he wasn’t registered for the spring course. In simple terms: Real Madrid have already budgeted an annual salary of €20m (€100m over a five-year contract) for Bellingham, and would have to pay €3m to the licensed consultant, of which only a small part, minus taxes and deductibles, goes to Mark Bellingham – and which in turn would have to be taxed.
‘According to the current rule, the commission is still at 10%, and would flow directly from the receiving club to Mark Bellingham and would only have to be taxed once. Neither Jude could wait for Liverpool in a sporting sense, nor it seems could his father Mark in a financial one.’
There are often a multitude of reasons why transfer deals collapse of course, but understanding that agent commission might be part of the reason that Bellingham didn’t get a dream switch to Anfield is likely to leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouths of all those that pay their hard-earned to follow Liverpool through thick and thin.
Can Bellingham improve a team that would repay £200m ? No I doubt it. Are there better cheaper options? Definitely yes. He is a very good player but he’s no Rooney or Messi or Ronaldo. He’ll never impress himself on a game single handed as they did. LFC have made the correct decision in my view. Madrid are state funded so are above sanctions hence the ability to go bust every so often and bailed out by the king.
You’re an idiot. Jude is a generational talent. His career will be insane.
Dele Alli was a generational talent as well, idiot
He is 19 and has a dodgy knee, so I imagine laying in England would not suit him long term anyway
The World Cup proved ; midfielders did not have to be world class. They just need legs “meaning athletes” that can pass ball and get box 2 box
Liverpool would be better served signing 3 midfielders totally less money that Bellingham
In the summer Liverpool will be offloading £1m a week off their wage bill in 10 players, if they also retired Thiago that would be £1.2 million a week.
Milner, Kieta, Ox, Adrian, Matip, Firmino, Nat Phillips, Kieller, Arthur Melo
Absolutely spot on Finders, sell all the injury prone players and replace and don’t spend total budget on one player who by himself will not solve LFC’s present midfield problems. Shame Kieta has been such a terrible disappointment he was a brilliant player in Germany, 2nd best midfield player in Germany to Tiago, both struggled to play 20 games a season for LFC.
Real Madrid don’t buy a single player to “solve” issues. The player has to be capable of fitting into our existing systems. The ability to be intelligent enough to switch in-game between a structured and non-structured scheme is essential. In this environment different players strengths get focused on based on the opposition during the course of a game. You can only do this when the entire team is at an elite level. Bellingham knows this. So does Haaland.