Sunderland midfielder Jobe Bellingham is weighing up his future amid interest from Champions League club
Jobe Bellingham is currently enjoying a well-earned break in Ibiza, where he can reflect on and revel in his starring role in Sunderland’s promotion back to the Premier League.
But it is now obvious that will soon have a major decision to make on where he plays his football next season, with numerous Bundesliga clubs circling.
The clubs eyeing a deal for Jobe Bellingham
Borussia Dortmund have long been admirers, while Eintracht Frankfurt have emerged as strong contenders in recent weeks. Both can offer a proven track record in youth development, passionate fanbases like the one Bellingham has so thrived in front of in the north east and perhaps most crucially, regular Champions League football.
Sources in Germany have indicated that Frankfurt holds some appeal to the 19-year-old who is determined to write his own story in the game, summed up by his early decision to leave Birmingham City and wear ‘Jobe’ on the back of his shirt at Sunderland. Having already written a special chapter in Sunderland’s history, there could be an obvious appeal at repeating the trick in Frankfurt. The flipside is that Borussia Dortmund have been doing the groundwork on a potential deal for some time, and offer a place at the heart of one of the most prestigious teams in European football over the last year or so.
There is longstanding interest in Bellingham from the Premier League, with Crystal Palace making a significant move to try and sign him last summer, but the indications are that if he leaves he is almost certain to go abroad. It’s a move that worked out well for Jude Bellingham, allowing him to develop at an elite level but away from the particular scrutiny of the Premier League and its surrounding media.
Jobe Bellingham’s transfer conundrum explained
For Bellingham, the decision will undoubtedly have been complicated by Sunderland’s stunning promotion back to the Premier League. The expectation behind the scenes on Wearside has long been that Bellingham would move on this summer, but there is no doubt that he has built an incredibly strong bond with the club, his team mates and its support.
The remarkable way Sunderland fought their way through the play-offs has only strengthened that connection, and there will be an obvious appeal to stepping up to the Premier League in an environment where he is settled and thriving.
What Sunderland won’t be able to offer next season, clearly, is the chance to realistically compete for major trophies and to play regularly in club football’s most prestigious competition. All that will almost certainly still be on the table next summer if he stays for one more year, but Bellingham is ambitious and wants to reach the very top of the game. It might well be that he and his camp decide the time is now to take the next step.
Bellingham set tongues wagging with his social media posts after the win at Wembley, posting ‘job finished’ alongside pictures of the celebrations. This wasn’t a statement announcing his imminent departure, but instead a callback to the job he set out on one year ago. Amid interest from Crystal Palace, Bellingham resolved to stay at Sunderland and put right the wrongs of the previous season. Bellingham had performed well personally, but the 16th-placed finish had left a sour taste and he went through a punishing pre-season programme to be in the best place possible to drive the club on from that low.
The task he sat out on when signing that new contract last summer was to be an integral part of a promotion campaign, and that job is clearly finished. It is also completed his own personal journey from having decided to sign for the club after watching the first leg against Luton Town at the Stadium of Light two years previous, now part of the team that took the final step. This is why there has been an expectation that he might now move on, but it remains to be seen what he ultimately decides when the dust settles.
Sunderland’s stance on Jobe Bellingham transfer explained
One of the key questions therefore becomes what Sunderland will do if Bellingham does decide he wants to take up one of the opportunities on the table.
As reported in The Guardian this week, Sunderland are keen to keep the youngster for at least another year and will make a concerted effort to keep him. Demonstrating the ambition of the club in the market this summer, and that there is a realistic chance of competing and beating the drop, will be key. Might an early move for Jordan Henderson send out a strong signal of intent? They will know, however, that there is a chance such a pitch isn’t successful.
On the one hand, they are in an incredibly strong position given that contract extension which runs until the summer of 2028.
The reality is that if Bellingham wants to move on, they will find it difficult to resist if a team does come forward with the kind of transfer package they will rightly command, which will no doubt land around the kind of record fees that saw Darren Bent and Jordan Pickford move to Aston Villa and Everton respectively.
Sunderland invested a major fee in Bellingham given his age and inexperience at the time, doing so in the knowledge that his likely development would see a massive return. There was always an expectation from day one that he would reach an elite level before Sunderland, and that it would benefit all parties if he could play a part in Sunderland’s journey before bringing in a bumper fee. It’s credit to Bellingham that he has so wholeheartedly bought into the club and the city, embodying the never-say-die attitude that has defined the team this season.
Given his decision to stay last summer, Sunderland would be loath to stand in his way this time around. There are echoes of the Jack Clarke situation to a degree, albeit without an expiring contract looming on the horizon. Sunderland rejected interest from Burnley following their promotion to the Premier League and convinced Clarke to give them one more year, but didn’t feel it would be right to do so when Ipswich came back the next summer. The logic is that if you want to recruit the very top talent in the game, you have to prove you won’t stand in their way over and over again when new opportunities present themselves. If Bellingham’s camp had felt Sunderland would stand in his way down the line, they may well not have agreed to that new deal last summer. Given the close ties and level of respect between the parties, there will be a desire for this to reach an amicable conclusion.
So the reality is that Sunderland will try and convince Bellingham to stay, and pivot to securing the best deal possible if he wishes to leave. While that would be a major blow to the club, it would give them a significant financial boost heading into the transfer window which ultimately is what this project is all about.
However the next few weeks play out, Bellingham has written his way into Sunderland’s history and that is something to celebrate. Wherever his career takes him, and hopefully there are one or two more Wearside chapters to write, he will have a legion of backers in this corner of the world.
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