As England prepared to face France in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a video surfaced on social media where a Real Madrid fan pleaded with Jude Bellingham to sign for last season’s Spanish champions in the summer transfer window.
At that stage, it was an open secret Bellingham’s future lay away from Borussia Dortmund. Having joined the German side from Birmingham City two years before, Bellingham had grown from an exciting teenage prospect to a player capable of deciding matches in the Champions League and international tournaments at the Westfalenstadion, and every big club in Europe were linked with his signature.
What was also significant about that video was the other two England players in shot: Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Along with Madrid and Manchester City, Liverpool were considered among the strongest suitors for Bellingham at that point, and Henderson and Alexander-Arnold were their representatives in that England squad. According to Conor Coady, the then Wolves defender also part of the England camp that winter, they were not just Liverpool’s representatives in a playing sense.
“I think Hendo and Trent tried with Jude (to get him to sign for Liverpool) at the World Cup,” said Coady, who now plays for Leicester City. “They man-marked him. They man-marked the life out of him.
“It was (every meal time), and they were either side of him. We were all sat there, and they would be talking about how good Liverpool is, how good Jurgen Klopp is and all this sort of stuff, and we’d all be sat there, having something to eat, listening to them.”
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While Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold’s tight relationship has maintained into this summer’s European Championship, as evidenced by their joint celebration after the former’s goal in the 1-0 group-stage win against Serbia (see below), their apparent overtures were in vain. Despite the efforts of ‘Agent Trent’, Bellingham, now 21 but then 19, eventually signed for Madrid in an £88.5million ($113.3m at the current exchange rate) transfer, and he has taken his game and popularity to another level in the Spanish capital.
Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold remain close and celebrated together in the Serbia game (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)
In his debut year at the Bernabeu, Bellingham has won La Liga and the Champions League and been named La Liga player of the season. If Alexander-Arnold and Henderson had got their way back in late 2022, however, perhaps he would have been the difference in Liverpool’s title challenge falling away in the same season’s final games.
Gone are the days when Chelsea were punished with hefty fines when details of a hotel meeting between then Arsenal player Ashley Cole, his agent Jonathan Barnett and Chelsea representatives Jose Mourinho and Peter Kenyon became known after the left-back joined the west London club in 2006. While “tapping up” a player before agreeing a fee with their club is technically unlawful in the Premier League, it’s still commonplace and fairly established in the modern game.
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The rulebook is clear: Rule T.1.2 explains that “a contracted player, either by himself or by any person on his behalf, shall not either directly or indirectly make any such approach as is referred to in Rule T.5 without having obtained the prior written consent of his club”. Rule T.6 clarifies that agents cannot advertise their players to prospective clubs “without having obtained the prior written consent of his (the player’s current) club”.
In light of the circumstances, however, these conversations, particularly between players, are inevitable.
One of the most famous examples of the potential success of player influence at international tournaments involved Rio Ferdinand, who won 81 caps for England, and six Premier League titles and a Champions League at Manchester United.
“I first spoke to Sir Alex (Ferguson, United’s manager at the time) during the 2002 World Cup. I played well in the tournament, and I remember I was speaking to some of his players like Nicky Butt, and they were saying, ‘You’ve got to come to Man United; it’s bigger than being with England’,” said Ferdinand, who followed the footsteps laid by Old Trafford icon Eric Cantona a decade earlier in leaving Leeds United to play under Ferguson at their biggest rivals later that summer.
Ferdinand joined Manchester United from Leeds in 2002 (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“My whole being of being a footballer was winning, and up to that point, I hadn’t won anything. I needed to go; I couldn’t waste any more time. I loved it at Leeds, but I needed to go, and that was it.”
There have been countless other instances. Among the most famous was following the 2010 World Cup, where the Spain squad’s Barcelona contingent left the world under no illusions that they were after international colleague Cesc Fabregas to join them at the Camp Nou from Arsenal.
During their World Cup-winning parade, Barcelona academy graduates Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol and Pepe Reina, the latter playing for Liverpool at the time, conspired to force a Barcelona shirt onto Fabregas (see below), who had assisted the winning goal in the final against the Netherlands.
Arsenal’s then manager Arsene Wenger responded with a determined message that the club would not be letting him go, but a year later, Fabregas was sold to his boyhood club after an injury-hit final season at the Emirates Stadium, putting an end to one of the most inevitable transfer sagas of its time.
Fabregas is one of the most extreme examples, but players’ discussions about their club futures are part of tournament football. Often, these players are close friends (as are their families), and being in close proximity for the duration of an international tournament lasting nearly two months, if you include the warm-up friendlies and other preparations, naturally breeds discussions over their personal and professional lives.
Fabregas’ Spain team-mates made it clear where they hoped he would move (Daniel Sastre/Getty Images)
Take Lamine Yamal and Pedri, for example, who have come clean to Spanish media with their attempts this summer to lure Athletic Bilbao winger and Spain team-mate Nico Williams to Barcelona. Yamal and Williams have built a very close bond, calling each other “brother” and engaging fans with moments such as playing rock, paper, scissors to decide who could drink first from a water bottle after both starred in the 4-1 victory over Georgia in the Euros’ round of 16.
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Chelsea full-back Marc Cucurella has also expressed his desire to resume the impressive partnership forged on Spain’s left flank over the past few weeks with 21-year-old Williams at Stamford Bridge.
“He would be a great signing (for Barcelona), but it all depends on what he wants. I’ve been telling him to sign for Chelsea,” said Cucurella before Spain’s quarter-final tie against Germany last week. “In the end, everything depends on him; he is very young, with a lot of experience. I think he will be a great player.”
Last summer, many of the discussions between USMNT players in preparation for the CONCACAF Nations League finals centred on where their club futures lay. Nine of Gregg Berhalter’s starting XI in the 3-0 semi-final win over Mexico changed clubs at some point in the 2023-24 season. Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah both joined AC Milan, while Tim Weah and Weston McKennie, who was returning to his parent club after a loan to Leeds for the second half of the previous campaign, went to Juventus.
“I definitely speak to the other players (about potential moves) because we’ve all been in these environments. The football world is very small, so if you’re in a situation a lot of guys have been in, it’s good to talk to people here because not too many people, at least around me, other than my agent and the team, are going to understand the ins and outs fully,” USMNT defender Auston Trusty told The Athletic in summer 2023, shortly before he moved from Arsenal to Sheffield United.
“We all talk about it all day, all different scenarios and situations, which is good and helps me figure things out. But my mind really is focused on the national team right now. It’s hard for me to focus on (the transfer window) because it’s almost like I’m doing a discredit to the national team because it’s such an honour and privilege to be here.”
Speaking to players at the clubs in question remains just one part of a much larger process, however.
Particularly at the highest level, teams build extensive scouting networks across the world and employ scouts and data analysts to find players that will fit into their recruitment plans. Identifying talent is the first step in a long journey, where clubs, primarily through sporting directors, coaches and scouts, analyse whether players will be a good fit on and off the pitch.
Following that, the vast majority of club-to-club and club-to-player correspondence takes place on other platforms and through different mediums, it can be via WhatsApp, voice notes, phone calls, or sometimes in person, where they hash out details including transfer fees, salary details and the individual and club visions.
By the time team-mates have the opportunity to get seriously involved in influencing the player’s decision, a potential transfer may already be far down the road to completion.
Bellingham and Jordan Henderson (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Given Qatar 2022 was a winter World Cup for northern hemisphere nations, around six months away from the summer transfer window, when most big-money deals happen, the Bellingham case was unique as there was still significant time before he made his decision. Typically, however, clubs at the elite level would like to be far enough along with a prospective deal to put the pieces together for a transfer in that window before a summer tournament even starts. If there is any meaningful effect, it typically comes for the players, who are getting the lie of the land at their suitors before seeking a move one or two transfer windows ahead of time.
Speaking of which, Alexander-Arnold is yet to renew his Liverpool contract, which expires next summer…
After fans of the Anfield club pushed him and Henderson to try to recruit Bellingham, Liverpool could find themselves on the other end of the process.
Imagine if Bellingham has been in the right-back’s ear during their time in Germany, convincing him to leave his hometown so they can team up for Madrid. Wouldn’t that be a twist of fate?
(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
