There are two reasons why Borussia Dortmund appear unwilling to part company with rumoured Liverpool target Jude Bellingham this summer.
The first is a rather simple one. Having already sold Erling Haaland to Man City after the reigning Premier League champions met his £51m release clause, the Bundesliga outfit don’t want to sanction the departure of two key players in the same summer.
Having banked that £51m, they are under no pressure to sell anyone else after all, and it was the same logic that prevented Haaland from being allowed to follow Jadon Sancho out the exit door in the summer of 2020. With Dortmund getting an extra season out of the Norwegian, they will now look to do the same with the England international.
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The second is a further matter of timing. While in a normal quadrennial summer, we would currently be enjoying the World Cup, this year, in FIFA’s infinite wisdom to award the tournament to Qatar, we have to wait until November for football’s elite international competition to commence.
Included in England’s squad for Euro 2020 last summer, making three substitute appearances, Bellingham has since established his place in Gareth Southgate’s plans and, barring injury, looks certain to be included in the the Three Lions’ quota for Qatar this winter. As a result, his value will only rise in the months ahead, adding to Dortmund’s determination to keep him, for now, further.
Bild have reported that Dortmund have placed an €120m (£103.9m) asking-price on the 19-year-old’s head. Yet, were he to shine at the World Cup, interest in his services and the numbers needed to snare him will only increase even further.
Had the World Cup taken place this summer then perhaps they would have been more open to a sale, even with Haaland’s own exit. Yet Dortmund won’t be the only club perhaps holding onto players for a further six months, at least, as a result.
Moreover, this mid-season World Cup will also have a knock-on effect on individual players with international aspirations. Those currently enjoying regular starting football will be more reluctant to depart at the risk of jeopardising their international hopes, while those struggling for game-time will be even more eager to move on in a bid to boost their call-up claims.
Such a fact has recently come into play at Man City with goalkeeper Zach Steffen looking to leave the Etihad and reportedly set to join Middlesbrough on loan. Meanwhile, the last World Cup in Russia cost Jurgen Klopp one of his primary Liverpool targets in the summer of 2017.
Given the success of Mohamed Salah at Anfield, it’s easy to forget the Egyptian wasn’t actually the Reds’ first-choice target five years ago. Instead, the club were first in the market to sign Julian Brandt from Bayer Leverkusen.
However, the Germany international was unwilling to move to Anfield and put his hopes of earning a World Cup call-up at risk.
"If you make the move, there is no guarantee that you'll play,” he told Focus on his future at the time. “I believe that it's important that I get a lot of games next season, and that is a given here at Leverkusen."
“My gut feeling and my head are telling me the time to move has not arrived yet. I have to straighten things out in Leverkusen,” Brandt later told kicker. “Of course there are players who say a year without European football before the World Cup is good reason to move.
“But if you move to a bigger club a year before the World Cup, you risk taking time at first to settle which possibly means playing fewer games.”
Brandt’s decision would prove to be justified as he was included in Joachim Low’s squad for the 2018 World Cup at the expense of Man City’s Leroy Sane. An ever-present off the bench as Germany suffered a group-stage exit, he would then join Borussia Dortmund in May 2019 in a reported €25m deal where he now plays alongside Bellingham - two years after Liverpool had chased his signature.
Of course the Reds would have no regrets, with Salah’s incredible 44-goal maiden season and free-scoring form ever since proving to be one of their finest pieces of business. Having initially wanted Brandt himself, Klopp would later admit his recruitment were the driving force behind the £36.9m signing from AS Roma.
“Michael Edwards, Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, they were really in my ear and were on it: 'Come on, come on, Mo Salah, he's the solution,’ he said. “When you have 20 players on the table, different players, it's difficult to make an early decision.
“But we all were convinced about it so could make the early decision so we could really get him. He's a fantastic person, a nice lad and a really good football player."
It remains to be seen what impact this unprecedented mid-season World Cup will truly have on transfer business this year, but should it indeed play a part in Liverpool missing out on Bellingham, or any other targets in the months ahead, the Reds will hope such disappointment is quickly forgotten in a similar fashion as when they missed out on Brandt.
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