But that didn’t work and the move, so far, has been a stunning success. In his first few months with the German giants, Bellingham has gone from strength to strength. He has already won Rookie of the month award for September and became the youngest English player to start a Champions League. It has seen the teenager open up about his move and Bellingham admitted that the “only thing I was bothered about in making this decision was playing football” this summer. 

“The only thing I was bothered about in making this decision was playing football, and it was the best place to do that. There’s plenty of young players out there who, if given the chance, would shine at first-team level but they don’t quite get the chance for whatever reason. I’m almost an example, as well as many others in our first team at the minute, to just give them a chance, throw them in the deep end and see what they can do. Because I think, as we start to learn more and more, there’s a lot more [young players] in the Championship now can handle it,” Bellingham told the Guardian.

“Man United have a great squad. And my decision had nothing to do with Man United. I was so focused and so happy with the interest from Dortmund that this became my first choice. It was never: ‘It’s this over this club.’ For me it was Borussia Dortmund, and that’s it. The way they integrate young players into the first-team squad is next level.  There is not a club in Europe that does it quite like them."