Former Birmingham chief exec Xuandong Ren has revealed how desperate Manchester United and Chelsea were to sign Jude Bellingham ahead of Borussia Dortmund.

Bellingham became the world's most expensive 17-year-old when he signed for the German club in July 2020 for £25m.

Ren, who headed up the Blues from 2017 to 2020, told Mundo Deportivo that United offered twice as much as the rest of the clubs interested and even used Sir Alex Ferguson, Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to convince him, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Chelsea were also scrambling for the now-England star's signature but then manager and Blues legend Frank Lampard "did not convince him either".

"Ed Woodward (then United CEO) was the most insistent. We sat down and talked about how we could convince Bellingham. But Jude didn't make any decisions based on money," Ren said.

"They offered a lot more salary compared to the rest...Double. He was going to have guaranteed millions in the bank and he didn't take them.

"That's not normal for a player at all. He sat down with Solskjaer, until Woodward brought Ferguson that day, another day to Cantona, to try to convince him."

Ren has also opened up about Bayern's pursuit of Bellingham at the point that the midfielder had decided on Dortmund.

"Until the last day, when he was going to sign with Dortmund, I received a call from his father asking me to wait to sign the transfer," he added.

"Bayern were trying to raise the offer at the last minute. They offered a lot of money as a bonus to the player."