Bryan Robson has admitted that Manchester United thought they had "more or less" convinced Jude Bellingham to join them prior to the teenager's £25million switch to Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2020.
Bellingham was one of the most sought-after prospects in Europe following a breakout year at Birmingham City. The 19-year-old was courted by numerous high-profile clubs, including United, who pulled out all the stops to try and convince the midfield maestro to join them.
Robson, Sir Alex Ferguson and Eric Cantona were just some of the United legends that were present to meet Bellingham before he was shown around the club's Carrington training base - a move that Robson thought had paid off.
The United ambassador, who clocked up over 460 appearances for the club during his playing days, has revealed that United believed they were in pole position to line the talented teenager following their star-studded meeting with Bellingham, who was 16 at the time, and his parents.
But Bellingham decided against the switch and instead opted to move to the Bundesliga with Dortmund.
Robson told The Sun: "Unfortunately for us [Bellingham] decided to move to Germany. We thought we more or less had him. Myself, Sir Alex and Eric Cantona all met him with his mum and dad at Carrington and after that meeting, we thought he was coming to us.
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"Now there is talk about him moving next summer and you see Liverpool mentioned a lot. We thought we had him and he would have been a great signing for us. But he definitely has it in him to become a great player for England."
Although speculating linking Bellingham with a move to the Premier League has been rife in recent months, the midfielder has thrived in the Bundesliga and recently insisted he is committed to Dortmund.
The youngster quickly became a key player at Dortmund and has also been a regular in the England set-up under Gareth Southgate. And Robson believes that Bellingham could even end up playing his way into a starting role alongside Declan Rice at the 2022 World Cup, which kicks off in just two months' time.
He added: "Declan Rice is a given as an England holding midfielder — he's so solid and reliable. Depending on how Gareth Southgate wants to play, Bellingham could have a role alongside him.
"What's sure is that Gareth has had Bellingham on his radar for some time now — he started playing him when he was still 17. Now he's got 15 caps and we have the two games coming up against Italy and Germany.
"It would be natural to think that Gareth will maintain that progress with him heading into the finals."
