Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham has earned his first England call up. The 17 year old made the multi million pound move from Birmingham City to Dortmund over the summer and has reaped the rewards with a potential first cap for the national team.
Bellingham will join team mate Jadon Sancho in the national team set up. Sancho is also someone who left England for Germany at the age of 17 and has excelled ever since. This is why I believe Bellingham moving to Germany will be the best thing for his career.
Sancho was in the England and Manchester City youth set up before he made the move to the North Rhine-Westphalia area.
He has since gone on to become one of the most exciting young talents in world football. This would certainly have not been the case if he had stayed at Man City. We have seen clubs such as Chelsea loan out their youngsters year after year.
Youth Development Issues In The UK
Whilst the likes of Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma have cemented places in the Chelsea team, we have also seen players such as Thomas Kaláš, Lucas Piazon and Jamal Blackman spend year after year on loan without ever really being close to the Chelsea first team.
Lucas Piazon has seen just three appearances for Chelsea and has been on seven loan spells since he joined the youth set up in 2011. Jamal Blackman has failed to make a single senior appearance for Chelsea and has been on eight loan spells since 2012.
Kaláš has managed to escape the Chelsea loan system, but himself had to go through seven loan spells before making his loan move to Bristol City permanent in 2019.
This could have easily been Sancho and there is nothing to suggest that Bellingham wouldn’t have got a big move in England and suffered the same fate.
Part of this issue is the money that is available to the big clubs.
Teams such as Chelsea and Manchester City can afford the best players available. They do not need to rely on their youth system as they can just go out and spend £40 million or more on players.
They can also put players out on loan, sell them in the future and make profit
Adapting To German Life
Bellingham has started off life in Dortmund very well, with one goal and two assists in eleven appearances in all competitions.
He could have very easily stayed at Birmingham for another year or two. Alternatively he could have also secured a move to the likes of Chelsea or Manchester City and spent the early parts of his career from club to club.
He has instead played in all but one of Borussia Dortmund’s Bundesliga games. He is playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world at the age of 17.
It makes you think that perhaps more British players should take this route. Borussia Dortmund appear to be a great club for a young player, in contrast to the English leagues where we see alot of big clubs loan out players and often waste their talent.
Jude Bellingham is a prospect that simply cannot be wasted.
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