Chelsea are set to be at the heart of a potential Jude Bellingham transfer saga in the summer. The 19-year-old midfielder has been heavily linked with an exit from Borussia Dortmund for some time now, with the Blues among several of Europe's biggest clubs vying for his signature.
Bellingham, who sees his contract at the Signal Iduna Park expire in 2025, has been subject to long-term interest from Chelsea, football.london understands. The west Londoners watched the England international during his time as an academy player at Birmingham City but, after failing to act on their interest, the German giants swooped in and signed the teenage sensation instead.
With Graham Potter in the market for a new midfielder this summer amid the uncertain futures of N'Golo Kante and Jorginho, Chelsea will match any bid that is made in order to acquire Bellingham's services, according to The Telegraph journalist Matt Law on the 'London Is Blue Podcast'.
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The report states that the Blues are not favourites to sign the midfielder and, while it's said that Todd Boehly will 'bid big', a decision on Bellingham's next club will not be made under the influence of just money. The likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool have already been given the green light to sign the Englishman after Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke admitted that the youngster can leave in the summer if he wishes.
As quoted by ESPN, Watzke claimed that the German side can not rival the financial packages being offered by to Bellingham. He said: "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.
"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. If he says 'I'd like to do something else,' then the really big [clubs] in Europe will be there and we can't afford to fight financially."
Earlier this month, Mike Keegan of the Daily Mail reported that Pep Guardiola's side have a strong relationship with Dortmund which could hand the Premier League champions a huge advantage in negotiations. Bellingham is also known to be a close friend of City's star striker Erling Haaland having enjoyed great success with one another in the Bundesliga.
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