Jude Bellingham to Barcelona?! How Aston Villa loanee Louie Barry's La Masia woes kept Real Madrid's new icon from moving to Camp Nou

This all starts with a different English teenager: Louie Barry. A Birmingham boy like Bellingham, Barry had impressed over a 10-year spell at the West Brom academy, and, before even making a first-team appearance, had fielded interest from Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona.

Barry eventually chose Barca, and became the first English player to ever walk through the doors of the famed La Masia academy. However, things didn't go to plan from the outset, and as a close friend of Bellingham's from their time in the England youth set-up, word of his struggles soon got back to the Midlands.

Just five months after the Barry penned his Barca contract, the Catalan club were due a meeting with Mark Bellingham in London. It did not go to plan.

"He didn't show up to the meeting," Bojan Krkic Sr., father of the former Barcelona attacker and a club scout for over a decade, told Cadena SER in 2022. "I know he did it to a lot of people. His excuse with us was that we had already signed an Englishman his age [Barry] from Aston Villa or West Bromwich, and he jokingly said: 'My son will not sign for Barca because he cannot play with someone of that limited quality'."

Bellingham did go on to leave Birmingham in the summer of 2020, joining Borussia Dortmund that July.

And Bellingham's father was arguably right in his judgment of how Barry had been treated in Catalunya. The teenage forward never really found his footing at La Masia, despite reportedly impressing on the training pitches.

The problems started early on. West Brom believed they were owed £235,000 ($285,000) compensation for having their academy's brightest talent pinched. A cash-strapped Barca disputed that, and arguments over paperwork went on and on, all while Barry was unable to make his competitive debut for over two months.

Once he was cleared to play, Barry didn't get the opportunities many expected he would. The 16-year-old was thrown into Barca's Under-19 setup, and but constantly saw older, more experienced players get chances to play ahead of him. Sources close to the player told GOAL in 2021 that the player's different style saw him siphoned out of the team. His patience, quite appropriately, was wearing thin.

“Louie wasn’t happy with the time he was given, and justifiably so,” a source involved in the deal that took him to Camp Nou said. “He always played well and got some goals. His team-mates thought he was a great striker."

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020 saw Barca crowned U19 league champions early, but despite signing an initial three-year deal with the club, Barry had already left. Aston Villa, the club he had supported throughout his childhood, had made their interest known in January, and Barry jumped at the chance, leaving Spain without ever coming close to the senior team.

Bellingham saw his career go another way. He signed for Dortmund around six months after Barry left Barca, and the move was met with a mixture of surprise and confusion from fans around Europe. Dortmund paid Birmingham a staggering €25m (£23m/$29m) for a 17-year-old with no top-flight experience, while his boyhood club famously retired his No. 22 shirt. It has since emerged that Bellingham turned down not only Barcelona, but also rebuffed serious interest from Manchester United to continue his footballing career in Germany.

And it seems he made the right decision. Bellingham wasn't an instant hit in Dortmund. Rather, he was given a chance to grow into the Bundesliga side, staying away from the spotlight of big clubs, and avoiding the inevitable scrutiny that would have come if he penned a deal with Barca or United.

But his quality was undeniable. After working his way into the team during the 2020-21 season, Bellingham started nearly every game in the next two, and a standout campaign last year almost drove Dortmund to an unlikely league title. He made Gareth Southgate's England squad for the pandemic-delayed Euro 2020, and was a crucial player for the Three Lions in the Qatar World Cup at the end of 2022.

He was always likely to leave last summer. Although Dortmund made repeated efforts to get the teenager to pen a new deal, Madrid came in with an offer that was simply too good to turn down — paying up after a long courting process. Going to Germany, then, was the best possible decision he could have made.

A Barca move might not have been catastrophic, though. After all, the Englishman is an immensely-talented midfielder who, even at 17, would've had a chance to break into the Blaugrana's first team.

Barca, at that time, were undergoing immense change as a football club, and bringing a handful of talented young players into the side. Bellingham would have broken through at the same time as Ansu Fati and Pedri, completing what could have been a deadly trio in the attacking third. Add that to the fact that a certain Lionel Messi was still floating around, and there is reason to believe that it could have worked out. Team success, it seems, could have been attainable.

But the cons certainly outweigh the pros here. To be a youngster in Catalunya is to live in Messi's shadow. The better the player, the more difficult it becomes to succeed, it seems. Fati, who was hailed as 'the next Messi' and ultimately given his No.10 shirt, has already burned out. Pedri was overused and now cannot stay fit for an extended period of time. Bellingham's legs needed to be protected — they still do now. Going to Barca could have thrown that all into jeopardy.

And then there would be the pressure of being a 17-year-old, unorthodox Englishman in Barcelona. Bellingham's technical quality is undeniable, but the midfielder is certainly not a player who would fit the classic La Masia mould. He's under an immense amount of scrutiny now, at Real Madrid, after proving he can be one of the best in the world. Things would simply have be much worse three or four years ago.

Barry's career, meanwhile, has gone the other way. Perhaps it was unfair to expect that a West Brom youth product with no senior football experience would be a megastar abroad. But the now-20-year-old has never really settled since leaving La Masia three years ago.

There have been some standout moments, it must be said. Barry scored on his Aston Villa debut in January 2021, equalising against Liverpool in an eventual 4-1 loss in the third round of the FA Cup as a Covid-ridden Villa were forced to play their youth team while the seniors isolated at home. Jurgen Klopp even dubbed Barry as "Little Vardy" post-match after being impressed by the teenagers pace when running in behind.

That, though, remains his only first-team appearance for Villa. Since then, he has been sent out on a flurry of loans. First, it was Ipswich Town, but he struggled to establish himself in League One, before joining Swindon, where he managed six goals in League Two. Less productive spells at MK Dons and Salford City followed in 2022-23.

But now, he might just have found a place to settle. Barry has scored nine goals in 15 league appearances — including a club-record seven in seven — for League Two's Stockport County this campaign, and has his helped his side move to the top of the table after two months.

Bellingham has taken notice, too. The two have always been close friends after being part of England setups through the age-groups while hailing from towns that are less than a 20-minute drive from one another. If Instagram is anything to go by, Bellingham's constant comments on Barry's posts suggest that he is still tracking one of his closest friend's career.

A potentially serious hamstring injury, sustained in Stockport's 2-0 win over Crewe on Tuesday, could yet alter the progress of his season, but it seems that Barry is finally showing why Barca wanted to sign him in the first place.

And so to Saturday, when Bellingham will play in the biggest game of his Madrid career so far. Los Blancos, despite playing away from home, are probably slight favourites. Barca have been struck with an injury crisis, and find themselves in a race against time to rush the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Pedri back to into the reckoning.

An already thin midfield now looks even lighter. Gavi, who has operated in a deeper role in recent weeks, will be charged, alongside Oriol Romeu, with stopping Bellingham, and it's a tantalising match-up. Gavi - 'The Pest' - and Romeu - 'The Wall' - combining to defend perhaps the best and most in-form player anywhere in the world right now.

Atletico Madrid showed last month that it is possible to stop Bellingham, but a weakened Barca might not have the defensive chops to do so — especially with the talents of Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo to also worry about on the wings. Everything seems set, then, for Bellingham's star to keep rising.

Bellingham had the chance to join Barca. Now, he seems well-positioned to best them while wearing the shirt of their arch rivals.