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With club football in the background, Manchester United players are preparing to represent their country at the international level.
This summer alone, there’s the Euros, Copa America, and the Olympics immediately after.
International football is where players from different clubs mingle and sparks for a potential transfer in the future are lit.
Harry Maguire has revealed to Sky Sports that he tried to do something of that sort when he first met up with Jude Bellingham in an England training session.
Maguire said that he knew within one or two training sessions with him that he was a special talent United needed to keep an eye on.
He said he went back to Old Trafford and told United all about him in an attempt for his club to gain a leg up over other potential suitors.
He said: “I can’t speak highly enough of Jude, he came to England and I knew within one or two sessions how he’d go.
“I went back to my club and I told them all about him but he took a different path and he’s done really well for Real Madrid. I knew he would when he signed there and long may it continue.”
United clearly took Maguire’s advice sincerely since they were believed to be in the running long before Maguire tried helping as well.
They were in the mix when he was leaving Birmingham for Dortmund, even calling the cavalry in the form of Sir Alex Ferguson and more to convince Bellingham to move to Old Trafford.
He decided to move to Dortmund instead, a decision he is unlikely to ever regret since it gave him the launchpad to earn a dream move to Real Madrid.
When he left Dortmund, United were never going to be realistically in the running for his signature as they had fallen behind European giants in pursuit of top trophies.
In his first season at the club, Bellingham has already won the domestic league title and his team is the favourite for the Champions League trophy, a competition United aren’t in next summer and got knocked out of in group stages this year.
Maguire and the club did their best but it was never going to happen!
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