Jude Bellingham: How Man United, Alex Ferguson and Eric Cantona tried to bring star to Old Trafford

Jude Bellingham is poised for a move to the Premier League. While Liverpool remain the favourites to acquire his signature, Manchester United are also reported to be in the hunt.

This aside - Birmingham City’s former CEO, Xuandong Ren, has revealed to Mundo Deportivo that Manchester United tried to sign Bellingham before he left the club to join Borussia Dortmund for an initial fee of £25 million.

Moreover, Ren also claimed that United were offering “twice as much as the rest of the clubs”. They held meetings with Alex Ferguson, Eric Cantona and then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in an effort to convince the Stourbridge-born starlet to join the Red Devils.

However, Bellingham opted against the offer from Manchester United. Instead, he made the ambitious jump to Germany and signed for Dortmund.

Ren added: “Jude did not make any decision based on money. They were offering much more salary compared to the rest. Maybe double. He was going to be guaranteed millions in the bank and he didn’t take it. That’s not normal for a player at all.

“I could only act as Birmingham’s CEO. I could say to him Jude, Manchester United are offering you three times what we are offering, you have to go.

“And it was a difficult position, because I wanted to respect his decision. At the time he could have gone for free, and we wouldn’t see any money. And our promise was that we would let them make the decision because of the loyalty they showed us.”