Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham after the game. © Christian Charisius/dpa
BVB once again have to cope with the departure of a crowd favourite. Jude Bellingham joins Real Madrid. Part of the high transfer fee is to flow into the squad restructuring.
Dortmund - Borussia Dortmund have lost another football gem in Jude Bellingham. The 19-year-old England international joins Real Madrid after three years at the club. This was announced by the listed Bundesliga club in an ad-hoc announcement on Wednesday. The lavish transfer fee of 103 million euros plus possible bonus payments up to a maximum total amount of around 30 percent of the fixed amount takes away some of BVB's grief over the great sporting loss. "The contractual details are now still to be coordinated and documented," the statement said. The England international's contract with BVB ran until 2025.
The departure of another key player with a lot of perspective is now part of Dortmund's DNA. Similar to Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Jadon Sancho (Manchester United) or Ousmane Dembélé (FC Barcelona), the club is called upon to close the gap as quickly as possible. The high proceeds for Bellingham make it easier to find an adequate replacement.
With Ousmane Dembélé, who moved from BVB to FC Barcelona in 2017 for around 140 million euros, only one player in Bundesliga history has brought in more money than Bellingham. Also in third place on this sales list is Jadon Sancho, a Dortmunder. The dribbler's departure to Manchester United flushed 2021 million euros into the club's coffers in the summer of 85.
Bellingham, who was signed by English second division club Birmingham in 2020 at the age of just 17 and cost around 25 million euros at the time, quickly proved to be a stroke of luck for BVB. With great dedication and a lot of overview, he became a crowd favorite and an England international within a few months.
This increased its market value considerably. Even Liverpool FC, which had long been traded as the new Bellingham club, dropped out of the transfer poker weeks ago in view of the lavish transfer fee. What remained were the Madrid Royals, who are gradually looking for a replacement for Luka Modric (37) and Toni Kroos (33), who have been guarantors of success for many years.
Bellingham is the sixth departure after Raphael Guerreiro, Mahmoud Dahoud, Luca Unbehaun, Felix Passlack and Anthony Modeste. New signings with strong fighting and playing skills should help Borussia overcome the trauma of the championship that was squandered on the last matchday. "I think that we will reinvest about 60-65 percent of the transfer sums that we achieve in this period," Managing Director Hans-Joachim Watzke recently announced in the "Bild". dpa
