Arsenal’s former lead scout Francis Cagigao has spoken out about how the club missed out on signing Borussia Dortmund man Jude Bellingham before he made the switch to German football.
Bellingham is considered one of the best midfield talents to come out of England in the past few generations. After his breakthrough to the Birmingham City senior team in 2018 at the age of 16, he was already tipped for greatness.
Like with a lot of current football talents, Arsenal were one of the first to identify the young man’s talents. And like with many other talents, the Gunners made a decision against signing Bellingham, allowing Borussia Dortmund to take him for £20 million months later.
Francis Cagigao, currently the sporting director of the Chile football association, made this known to the media in a recent chat about his time as Arsenal’s lead scout.
“I saw him for the first time when he was 16 years old,” the current Chile sporting director told AS. “I wanted to sign him for Arsenal, but he was already too expensive.”
Bellingham, now 19, has now risen to incredible heights playing for Borussia Dortmund. He has captained the German side on a few occasions and is one of the leaders of the team.
He is expected to leave Germany in the near future and to command the biggest transfer fee ever paid for a British player. There are a host of clubs already lined up for his signature including Real Madrid and Liverpool but Arsenal have been reported to be monitoring the situation.
Arsenal and Bellingham may be far away from each other in terms of the feasibility of the transfer. However, Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo are options that they still have and are willing to pursue in the summer, per existing reports.
Cagigao also spoke about Barcelona’s famed class of 1987 which spawned some of the greatest footballers of the modern game: Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique and a few others.
Arsenal, like many other clubs, had their eyes on those players but were only able to sign Fabregas from among the lot.
“Messi’s situation was not regulated and it was impossible for him to have a work permit in the UK,” Cagigao said. “We had several meetings with Horacio Gaggioli, his representative at the time, but it was impossible.
“The Pique thing was not done due to a somewhat complex bureaucratic issue. In the end we signed Cesc Fabregas from that great Barca cadet team.”
