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Photo by Richard Sellers/Getty Images
Reports in Spain suggest Real Madrid have fallen behind the Reds in the race to sign England World Cup star Jude Bellingham.
In Liverpool’s ongoing chase to sign England and Borussia Dortmund star 19-year-old midfielder Jude Bellingham, the most consistent threat has been cast by Real Madrid, with the Spanish giants regularly talked up as their primary competitors.
Every now and then the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City are mentioned, but those names often seem to come and go. It’s Madrid who are omnipresent along with Jürgen Klopp’s Reds when it comes to Bellingham rumours.
Today, though, Marca are suggesting that the La Liga side they have insight into has accepted that signing Bellingham is becoming a long-shot due to his rising price and a belief that the player would not push hard to move to the Bernabéu.
As the Spanish outlet see it, Bellingham’s starring turns for England at the World Cup where he has established himself as one of Gareth Southgate’s top midfielders with a goal and assist in four appearances, are pricing Madrid out of a move for him.
The only answer as they see it would be for Bellingham to favour a move to Madrid to such a degree that it would give them bargaining power with Dortmund to keep his fee closer to €100M than to the rumoured €150M the Germans may now want.
And the problem there is Liverpool, who they case as the more likely destination at the present moment—and certainly on that front one imagines the time he’s spending with Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson in Qatar isn’t hurting the Reds.
England and Bellingham are set to resume their World Cup campaign—and potentially to further bolster the player’s perceived worth—when they take on France in the quarter-finals on Saturday, December 10th with kickoff set for 7PM GMT.
