Chelsea attempted to sign Jude Bellingham and received 62 reports from 25 scouts before the Real Madrid star joined Borussia Dortmund.

Chelsea spent four years creating 62 reports trying to sign Jude Bellingham as a teenager, only to have him move elsewhere.

Bellingham is one of the best players in world football after a stunning season at Real Madrid and that potential was evident for all to see from a young age.

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Playing in Birmingham City’s academy team, Bellingham had all the top teams in England lining up to secure his signature, with the west London side being one of the leading suitors.

Yousuf Sajjad was one of the main scouts tasked with monitoring Bellingham at Stamford Bridge – a scout who later worked with Arsenal before becoming technical director at Dutch club FC Den Bosch.

But according to Sajjad, it was Bellingham who was the player he spent the most time evaluating during his career as he tried to bring him to Chelsea.

Speaking on the Rising Ballers YouTube channel, Sajjad said: “We had a really good recruiting team who worked with the best players, like Jude Bellingham for example, who probably did the most work I’ve ever done. done on a player during this season. I tried to sign Jude.

“We’ve had reports on him since he was under-12s and up to the under-16s when he was at Birmingham.

“We had about 62 reports from 25 different recruiters and so when we got to the point where we wanted to sign him, it was about how can we make what we present to him different from everyone else’s other big clubs?

“So we had all the content we needed, from the under-12s to the under-16s, from a reporting point of view. So let’s try to trend what stayed the same for him as a player – as his celebration – but at the same time taking back what he has developed and what he still has to develop.

“We then attached that with footage and had a very long video of him playing at 12, 13, 14 and all the way up and highlighting those traits and then at the end we put it on a FIFA reel in a Chelsea kit and I’m really trying to think outside the box.

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“I spent a lot of time on the end game where we were making decisions, presenting that information to the players, collecting information and making it as unique as possible to close a deal.”

“He has always been on our radar from the moment I joined as a top talent to watch.

“Of course, in terms of recruitment he was out of range at the younger ages, but he got to the under-14s and we had a full-time school program, so it was easier at the time, but he didn’t want to move.

“We just followed him constantly. He has always been a player that we have highly regarded and who has always been on our radar. »

When asked why he didn’t sign for Chelsea, Sajjad replied: “It was a time where there was no path forward. There weren’t many examples of that. moment when he could say that it would be a good thing for me to join him.

“To be honest, you understand him in the end because he obviously chose the right path for himself because of what he’s doing now, but at the time we had Tino Anjorin who was flying at the time, Mason Mount and players in and around his position who were also of a very good standard.

“It wasn’t that he didn’t want to come and compete, but rather just thinking at the time ‘if they can’t make it at this point, then maybe I should choose a different option’. “

Of course, Bellingham eventually signed for Borussia Dortmund at the age of 17 before making 132 appearances for the club.

He then joined Real Madrid for £88.5 million and has since become an integral part of the team, scoring 21 goals in his first season so far.