Florian Plettenberg on Real Madrid signing Bellingham & Bayern Munich's pursuit of Rice & Caicedo

Right, let's bring you more now on Jude Bellingham's move from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid. It has been completed, he is officially a Madrid player and becomes the second most expensive teenager after signing for 115 million pounds on a six-year deal. But how is this being received in Germany? Let's go live to our reporter Florian Plattenberg who is there. Florian, I mean a huge asset now for Real Madrid, but for Dortmund, how much of a hold do they have in the centre of their midfield with the departure of Jude Bellingham? Well, a difficult transfer, a massive loss for Borussia Dortmund and for the Bundesliga as well. He was one of the most spectacular players we have in the Bundesliga, but for Dortmund it was very important to fix the transfer now because they have to be prepared for the next days and weeks because they are now searching for a new number six and Edson Alvarez, the star from Ajax Amsterdam, he's one of the top transfer targets. But to my information, there is no concrete offer yet and there is no verbal agreement with Alvarez so far and Dortmund still have a close look on the situation of Ilkay Gündogan. So, as I said in the very beginning, Bellingham, it was clear for a month that he will leave Dortmund and now it's clear. Yeah, I mean he had pressure being, you know, one of the youngest captains for Borussia Dortmund, you know, just a teenager, but there's a different pressure, as you know Florian, when you move to Real Madrid. So, how does Jude Bellingham's temperament and how does his character match up to that challenge? Well, I think he's ready for that big, big step and you can compare him with the German national Joshua Kimmich and, by the way, he's not behind me. Three other German nationals are behind me, Emre Can, Kevin Trapp and Leroy Sané because we have to create atmosphere for the Euros24, but Bellingham, he's ready, he's had the mentality and the quality for Real Madrid, but I'm very excited to see if he will be a regular starter, if you see that Toni Kroos will extend his contract until 2024, Luka Modric is on verge to sign a new contract until 2024, you have Kamal Winger, you have Chouhameni, so it's a risk for Bellingham to make that move in that very, very important year for him, if we look that we have one year to go to the Euros, so he has to be a regular starter, to be a regular starter for England in one year. Yes, a very, very good point you make there, Florian, and in terms of how this deal was done, Dortmund thanked Real Madrid for the way that they dealt with the transfer, was it tricky, was it difficult? Honestly, I don't think so, to my information the behaviour, the relation between Dortmund and Real Madrid is very, very good and it's a very good atmosphere for years, so Dortmund was aware of the fact that the big, big teams will make an approach for Jude Bellingham and Real Madrid is one of the biggest teams, so I think they expect that big offer and in the end it was a good deal for all parties, but and this is maybe important, in Germany we all had this information that Dortmund expects around 150 million euro all in in the end, but there was a step two or three weeks ago when I also got the information and someone from Dortmund told me, ah maybe we have to get to go a little bit down and it's more realistic that we get all in 120 or 130 million with bonus payments included and that's the result in the end, but I think a good deal and a good price for Dortmund. He's certainly been through the emotions, hasn't he, we just saw those shots of him looking crestfallen as Borussia Dortmund let the Bundesliga go on the final day with that draw against Mainz at home, but then a very warm farewell letter from Jude Bellingham to the Dortmund fans, once a Borussia, always a Borussia, he said. Let's switch focus Florian, to Bayern Munich, they've decided against making a bid for Declan Rice, why was that? Difficult question, to my information or I got the information last afternoon, there was a you have to know at Bayern Munich now there's a new transfer board and Salihamidzic is gone, Oliver Kahn is gone, there's a new transfer board consisting of seven people around Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, he has returned to the club, Uli Hoeneß, strong and powerful again and they have discussed Declan Rice in the last couple of weeks and Thomas Tuchel together with Salihamidzic and Neppe, they have been in London a few weeks ago, they have met Declan Rice personally and they have spoken to Declan Rice and I got the information that the talks were very positive and that Declan Rice has signaled to Bayern that he can really imagine to join Bayern, because of the new city, because of the new league, so Bayern returned to Munich, the Bayern bosses and they put that positive signal in the club, but there is still no offer and there was a meeting yesterday in the afternoon and they have discussed Declan Rice again and they have finally decided not to make an approach, not to make an offer for Declan Rice, because they have begun to become more and more realistic last week, because they got the feeling that Arsenal is in front, Arsenal is pushing and Arsenal is much more concrete than Bayern and Bayern, I have to be honest, is still not able to pay transfer fees in the range of 110, 120 or 130 million euro, you won't see a transfer in that range, maybe 100 million euro, but not higher than this, so Declan Rice is off from the table, despite of the fact that he was the absolutely top transfer wish from Thomas Tuchel. Okay, so they're not going to go for the West Ham captain, but there is another Premier League midfielder, who's currently at Brighton, who is definitely of interest to Bayern Munich, tell us a little bit more about that and Moises Caicedo. Absolutely fresh in a few minutes ago, I got the information that Bayern Munich has discussed Moises Caicedo in the last couple of days within the club, around the table, and because Bayern Munich knows there are still no agreements yet with clubs like Chelsea or Liverpool, despite of the fact that Bayern knows that Chelsea is pushing a lot for Caicedo and Caicedo also is aware of the fact that Bayern Munich is interested and Brighton is interested or is aware of the fact too, but I also hear that Thomas Tuchel is not pushing for Moises Caicedo at this stage, so I think a transfer of Caicedo to Bayern Munich is unrealistic at this stage, but he's one of the names of the list being considered and being discussed, same like Sufjan Amrabat, another name who was discussed at the Bayern transfer board in the last couple of days, but no hot transfer target for Bayern yet, so as you can see, a very very difficult transfer window for Bayern Munich at this stage. Enjoyed all of those updates, Torhain, thank you very much indeed.