Yes, It’s been long overdue but it’s finally time to talk about football’s latest sensation – Jude Bellingham. Earlier this summer, Real Madrid broke the bank and signed the England international for a fee of €103 million and at the time it might have seemed like a hefty price, even in today’s market especially since the young man is only 20 years old. The transfer fee paid for Bellingham makes him Madrid’s second most expensive signing ever behind Eden Hazard (€115 million) which goes to show how desperate Madrid were to snatch him up before any other big clubs around Europe came knocking on Borussia Dortmund’s door.
It is a well-known fact that Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund have an exceptional foundation for unearthing and developing young talents into finished articles and then selling them to make a profit. Throughout the years, we have seen Dortmund produce players like Lewandowski, Pulisic, Gundogan, Dembele, Aubameyang and many more. Despite all these household names, Bellingham has the potential to be the best player to come out of Dortmund.
Bellingham’s impressive start to the season
Since making his move to Spain, the 20-year old England international has instantly adapted to his Los Blancos teammates and is taking La Liga by storm. The impact Bellingham has demonstrated is unrivalled for a new signing, he has come into the team without any lack of confidence in his ability. On the contrary,
Madrid’s seasoned fullback Dani Carvajal was quoted saying “From the first moment when he started training, we looked at each other in pre-season, the veterans… and we said: ‘Phew, he knows what he’s doing!’ You don’t see that he’s very fast, that technically he’s crazy… it’s just that he’s very complete, he’s a finisher, you give him the ball and from the third week he’s understood everyone just by watching. He’s very intelligent”.
The England international has displayed his qualities on the pitch by scoring 11 goals and providing 2 assists in 13 La Liga appearances and his ability extends to the Champions League as well – scoring 4 goals and assisting 2 in just 4 appearances in the competition so far. He is extremely in-form at the moment that the only time his name was not mentioned at the end of a football game for club or country was when he was out for a week due to a shoulder injury last month.
During his goal scoring run, Bellingham broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s record by scoring 8 goals in his first 8 La Liga games. He also broke another one of the Portuguese’s record by scoring 14 goals in his first 15 La Liga matches. He now has the most goals scored by any Real Madrid player in his first 15 games. The records that Ronaldo set when he was dawning the Los Blancos uniform are some of the greatest all-time records and the fact the Bellingham has burst onto the scene in this capacity and is being compared to Ronaldo’s early days in Madrid is definitely a telling sign.
Due to this outstanding start to his Madrid career, the fans and teammates alike have taken a great liking to Bellingham and he has quickly become their new leader in a sense. He leads the team the same way Ronaldo did, he works hard on and off the ball, tracks back all the way to his own box to defend an attack and in the next moment he is sprinting 60-70 yards to get on the end of a counter-attacking goalscoring opportunity.
The intensity, energy and determination this young Bellingham has brought into Madrid has really impacted the rest of the players as well, everyone else on the team seems to have raised their level and they are just blowing teams away at the moment. If you watch Real Madrid regularly you would notice that Bellingham’s style of play is years beyond his age and he is already a complete footballer at just 20 years old.
It rarely happens but even when he does fail to score, the England international is always in the thick of it, you will see him creating clear-cut chances and assisting his teammates, making important tackles and interceptions in midfield, gliding past players with ease or even playing some eye-catching passes to carve open the opposition’s defence. I genuinely have not seen a player as complete as Jude Bellingham at his age in a long time.
Role Transition from Dortmund
Jude Bellingham signed for Dortmund in 2020 for a fee of £25 million from Birmingham which was a historic record fee for a 17-year old. Before the England international made the move to Madrid, he represented the German club for three seasons. During his time there, he naturally spent several games on the bench initially as he was still a youngster and had to earn his way into the starting eleven, which he did within no time.
During his Dortmund days, he was already proclaimed as one of world football’s biggest wonder kids alongside Pedri of Barcelona and England teammate Phil Foden of Manchester City. Bellingham possesses remarkable endurance and work rate, hence at Dortmund he was placed in the centre of midfield, often having to play a more defensive role which involved a more traditional box-to-box approach.
Jude still managed to impact most games he appeared in by creating chances, assisting his teammates and occasionally scoring goals because he would energetically burst through the midfield to get into the box and would constantly make penetrating runs through opposition’s midfield lines with the ball at his feet.
However, because his role in this Dortmund team was primarily to win possession back in the midfield and turn defence into attack, he was usually the one starting an attack or breaking through defence lines with his refined vision and accurate passing so naturally he was not going to score as many goals as someone playing higher up the pitch.
After making the move to Madrid, manager Ancelotti has given Bellingham a different role to play and he is clearly thriving in this new position. Ancelotti is a very creative and experienced manager who has managed numerous stars and developed countless young prodigy’s throughout his career. If I start naming players, the list won’t stop.
The point is, Ancelotti knows how to get the best out of his players and I honestly can think of only a handful other managers in the world who might be as good or better suited to developing a generational talent like Bellingham. Ancelotti has changed Madrid’s starting formation a few times this season depending on their opponents but in all these formations, Bellingham plays a similar role which is either more central or towards the left-wing and slightly behind the forwards.
In this new role, Bellingham is basically an attacking midfielder rather than a traditional box-to-box midfielder and therefore has much more license to assist the attacking play by making runs from deep in midfield to the box, play more direct passes to the forwards and create more goal scoring opportunities. Bellingham’s style of play has often been compared to one of Real Madrid’s and football’s all-time greats Zinedine Zidane who is also Jude’s footballing idol and played in the same position.
The transition from a central/defensive midfielder to an attacking midfielder has allowed the England international to express himself freely on the pitch and show the world everything he has to offer. Like I said before, he is only 20 years of age but we are already seeing how complete of a footballer he is and why he is arguably the best or at least most in-form player in the world right now.
Although we’re only just getting to halfway point in the season, the way Jude Bellingham has adapted to this young Madrid squad and his new role on the pitch has been applaudable and if this is just the beginning, I am extremely excited to see what he does next!
