Chelsea scouts made a massive 62 reports on super star but still didn’t sign him | OneFootball

There’s an incredible story going around this week regarding Chelsea’s scouts looking at a player for many years and putting together 62 reports on him, yet still not signing him.

We know that there are many different circumstances that might pay dividends to things like this and there will be different reasons why said player would not be signed, and it might even often just be as simply as being down to the player themselves, which it might be in this case.

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But Chelsea scouts will now be kicking themselves for putting together 62 reports on Jude Bellingham but not signing the now super star player!

Chelsea spent four years scouting Bellingham

Chelsea wanted Bellingham whilst he was at Birmingham

As cited by talkSPORT, Chelsea spent four years building 62 reports in an attempt to sign Jude Bellingham only for him to move elsewhere, says Yousuf Sajjad, one of the main scouts tasked with monitoring Bellingham at Chelsea.

Speaking on the Rising Ballers YouTube channel, Sajjad said: “We had a really good scouting team that worked across the top players, like Jude Bellingham for example who was probably the most work I’ve ever done on a player in that season that we tried to sign Jude.

“We had reports on him from when he was an Under-12 and all the way up to Under-16 when he was Birmingham.

“We had like 62 reports from 25 different scouts and so when we got to a point where we felt like we wanted to sign him it was about how can we make what we present to him different from every other top club?

“So we had all of the content that we needed from Under-12 to Under-16 from a reporting perspective so let’s try and create trends on what’s stayed the same for him as a player – such as his celebration – but at the same time pick up what he has developed and what he still needs to develop.

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

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

“He was always on our radar from the moment I joined as a top talent to keep an eye on.

“Of course in terms of recruiting he was outside of distance at the younger ages but got to Under-14 and we had a full-time schools programme so it was easier at the time but he didn’t want to move.

“We just continuously followed him. He was always a player who we rated highly and was always on our radar.”

Asked why he didn’t sign for Chelsea, Sajjad said: “It was a time when there wasn’t a pathway. There wasn’t many examples at that point where he could say this would be a good move for me to join.

“To be fair, you understand it 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 that were also of a real good level.

“It wasn’t that he didn’t want to come in and compete but more just thinking at the time ‘if they’re not making it at this point then maybe I need to pick a different option’.”