Jude Bellingham has made a frighteningly good start to his Real Madrid career – a start equal to one of the club's greatest-ever players – and if he continues in this manner, it is just a matter of time before he gets his hands on one of football's greatest prizes, the Ballon d'Or.
Despite the pressure that comes with playing under the fluorescent lights of the Santiago Bernabeu and the astronomical expectations of Real Madrid supporters, the England international has made an exceptional start to life in the Spanish capital, setting himself up to become a true Galactico.
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When he made the move to Real for a hefty £88 million (R2.1 billion) – a fee that could potentially, and most likely will, rise to £114 million (R2.6 billion) with add-ons – some would have feared him following in the footsteps of your Eden Hazards, Robinhos, Nicolas Anelkas and Kakas – players considered to be Los Blancos flops.
However, after what he has achieved thus far, he is on par with some of the world's finest as well as club legends.
Shoulder to shoulder with giants
According to statistics released by Opta Sports, only four players have scored more goals than the Englishman in the UEFA Champions League before turning 21. They are Erling Haaland (20 UCL goals before turning 21), Kylian Mbappe (19 UCL goals), Karim Benzema (12 UCL goals) and Patrick Kluivert (nine UCL goals). Notice how all the players in the list are forwards. Nonetheless, Bellingham currently has eight goals in the tournament and considering he turns 21 in June next year only, the midfielder has lots of time to close the gap even further.
He is clearly making waves on the biggest stage in Europe, but what about his form in LALIGA?
Well, he became the youngest player in the 21st century to score in three consecutive league games for Real.
In addition to this, the England international has become only the fourth player to score on both his LALIGA and UCL debut for Los Blancos, following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, who achieved this feat all the way back in 2009.
In Bellingham's first nine appearances for the Madrid giants, he managed to bag eight goals and three assists, which was the highest of any non-striker across all competitions for a team in Europe's big five leagues this season. The former Borussia Dortmund man's strikes also ensured that he matched the Portuguese legend's start of six goals in seven games.
If he continues in this trajectory, a Ballon d'Or may be just one of the many accolades the midfielder achieves during his career.
Talk of the town
The man Spanish news outlet Marca dubbed as having "the touch of Zinedine Zidane and the decisiveness of Cristiano Ronaldo" also received sparkling praise from Carlo Ancelotti after scoring a 94th minute goal that saw the Madrid side beat Union Berlin 1-0 in their first Champions League group stage encounter this season.
"[Bellingham] has quality and it looks like he's lucky. This goal is similar to the one against Getafe, but you have to be there. He's smarter than others when attacking from the second line. He has this quality and he's making the most of it," the Real manager said after that tie, as per GOAL.
Meanwhile, despite the hefty price tag, his new teammates consider him to be a bargain. Often, it takes a strong mindset, discipline, sacrifice, dedication, and a burning desire to win and be a success to achieve the game's highest feats and that is what Bellingham seems to possess.
According to ESPN, his teammates described him as a "a professional, from head to toe" who won the dressing room over almost as soon as he arrived.
Top that off with an elite winning mentality, and you have got yourself the perfect recipe for success.
The thing, however, is that people often misinterpret a player's strong desire to win, confusing it with being a sore loser.
Think about it. When Wayne Rooney revealed that he changed his studs before a game against Chelsea with the intention to hurt somebody after his Manchester United side lost out on the league title to the Blues in 2006, people labelled him a sore loser instead of a serial winner.
The striker revealed that he always wore old plastic studs during his career, but for that match he changed them to "big, long metal ones" because he wanted to "try and hurt someone, try and injure someone. I knew they were going to win that game. You could feel they were a better team at the time so I changed my studs."
People can criticise Rooney all they want but it was that hatred of losing that helped him achieve everything he did in his glittering career. Winning is everything to an elite player.
Bellingham seems to be cut from the same cloth. After Dortmund lost the league title in dramatic fashion on the last day last season, the England star was seen shoving a camera away from him after the final whistle, but some people, for reasons I cannot fathom, criticised him for it. Maybe they just haven't tasted the sweetness of victory.
An emotional Jude Bellingham pushes the camera away after losing the Bundesliga title in the final minutes of the season. pic.twitter.com/5bepT7l502
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 27, 2023
The Los Blancos star has the winning mentality, the ability, the drive, the physicality, and the technical skills to become one of this generation's greatest players, and if I were a betting man, I would put everything on it.
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