Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has announced that the club is open to allowing midfielder Jude Bellingham to leave the club during the next summer transfer window if he wishes. The 19-year-old midfielder is a top transfer target for a range of clubs, among which are Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Real Madrid.
Watzke explained that the club cannot compete with other elite clubs when it comes to offering the highest wages to Bellingham and thus understands should the player decide to depart the Bundesliga team.
“We will hold talks now, as soon as [the World Cup in] Qatar is over, and then we’ll have a fundamental talk about what he would like,” Watzke stated. “He just needs to tell us if he’d like to stay or if he’d like to go. In both cases we’ll talk about it very pleasantly and reasonably together. In general we can imagine that he’d stay with us, but we can’t behave as if this topic wasn’t on the table.”
Bellingham’s current contract with Dortmund is valid through 2025. While his going transfer fee is expected to be in the region of €100 million the English midfielder could fetch as much as €150 million depending on how heated the race for his signature becomes.
