Borussia Dortmund are reportedly willing to accept a fee of £83m for in-demand midfielder Jude Bellingham next summer.
The 19-year-old is expected to be one of the hottest properties on the market in 2023, as a multitude of top European clubs compete for his signature.
Bellingham left his native England to join Dortmund from Birmingham City in 2020, and he has gone from strength to strength at the Westfalenstadion.
The England international has already made a century of appearances for the Bundesliga side, scoring 13 goals and setting up 18 more in the process.
During the early stages of the 2022-23 campaign, Bellingham has played every minute of his side's 10 games so far, scoring twice in the Champions League and once in the DFB-Pokal.
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The midfielder's contract at the Westfalenstadion runs until 2025, but there is supposedly an acceptance that he will leave the club in the next summer transfer window after Dortmund kept hold of him for the 2022-23 season.
The likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool are all expected to battle for Bellingham's signature, and according to The Sun, a fee of £83m may do the trick.
However, the report adds that any suitors will have to fork out the entirety of the fee in one payment if they are to strike a deal, which therefore makes Man City the early frontrunners.
Pep Guardiola's side are supposedly 'convinced' that they will win the race for Bellingham's services, but Liverpool are set to push their Premier League title rivals all the way.
Chelsea and Man United are both in the background, but the two clubs know that failure to qualify for the Champions League would end their hopes of a deal for the former Birmingham starlet.
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Bellingham visited Old Trafford in 2020 before ultimately moving to Dortmund, and former Man United midfielder Bryan Robson has admitted that the Red Devils thought they had won the race to sign the teenager after a joint effort from him, Eric Cantona and Sir Alex Ferguson.
"Unfortunately for us he decided to move to Germany. We thought we more or less had him. Myself, Sir Alex and Eric Cantona all met him with his mum and dad at Carrington and after that meeting we thought he was coming to us," Robson told The Sun.
"Now there is talk about him moving next summer and you see Liverpool mentioned a lot. We thought we had him and he would have been a great signing for us. But he definitely has it in him to become a great player for England.
"I watched him closely playing against City and you could see how much he's progressed since we thought we had landed him at Manchester United a couple of years ago. If he keeps performing like he did against City he will be a big part of England's World Cup bid."
However, a recent report has claimed that a move to Real Madrid is a more attractive option for Bellingham, who played the full 90 in England's 1-0 Nations League defeat to Italy on Friday, which saw the Three Lions relegated from League A.
Ben Knapton
