Pep Guardiola ‘genuinely in awe’ of player linked with €150m move to Man City and other transfer rumours

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is ‘genuinely in awe’ of Jude Bellingham and wants to lure the Borussia Dortmund star to the Etihad Stadium, according to transfer insider Dean Jones.

The 19-year-old is reportedly on the Premier League champions’ radar regarding a potential move for him in the future.

Having come up against the Manchester giants twice in this season in the Champions League (and scored against them in September), the Englishman will have an idea of what City are all about on the pitch, and vice versa.

The Borussia Dortmund midfielder is a player on City’s shortlist and Dean Jones says Guardiola is “in awe” of the 19-year-old.

Pep Guardiola was full of praise for Bellingham when City faced Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday, calling him “the whole package”, so there’s no doubt he’s a player Pep would love to have.

Jones told Give Me Sport: “I think Guardiola is genuinely in awe of this guy in some ways. When he sees players with legitimate ability, he is willing to praise them. There’s no doubt he rates him.” 

Bellingham joined the German outfit on a five-year deal in 2020 and has made 109 appearances in all competitions, scoring 19 goals with 20 assists.

This current Bundesliga season has seen the midfielder show how impressive he is by racking up more shot-creating actions (41), goal-creating actions (five), successful tackles (21), blocks (21) and interceptions (19) than any other player at Dortmund.

Borussia Dortmund have reportedly set a new asking price for Jude Bellingham.

This comes from Bild. They claim that Borussia Dortmund have set a new asking price for Jude Bellingham after his incredible form this season.

That price stands at €150m or just shy of £130m. It’s a price that reflect Bellingham’s status as not just the most promising young midfielder in Europe but as one of the best in the world this season – at any age.

Dortmund set this price as clubs lineup to sign Bellingham. The report names Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool as interested – interest that will likely grow post-World Cup.

Elsewhere, Manchester City have reportedly shown interest in Shakhtar Donetsk’s versatile defender Mykola Matviyenko.

That’s according to David Ornstein of The Athletic who claims talks are underway for Brighton to make a bid for the 26-year-old in January, for a fee of around £17.2million.

Matviyenko came on as a substitute during Shakhtar’s Premier League match against Oleksandriia on Saturday, which was disrupted for over an hour due to an air raid siren going off.

Shakhtar currently sit second in their domestic league, and can progress to the last-16 of the Champions League with a win over RB Leipzig on Wednesday evening.