Jude Bellingham has settled more quickly at Real Madrid than Los Blancos legend Cristiano Ronaldo, according to one LaLiga analyst.
The England midfielder is still only 20 years old, but has enjoyed a spectacular start to life at the Santiago Bernabeu since signing for the Spanish side from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
Bellingham has scored 20 goals in 31 appearances for Real Madrid in all competitions and racked up nine assists, while impressing with his work-rate, his passing and his overall team play as well.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Speaking to the Daily Star, former Brighton midfielder and LaLiga TV analyst Andrea Orlandi said, “Yes, he (Ronaldo) did score quite a lot of goals when he joined the club, but you could see that wasn’t the real him up until a couple of months. With Bellingham, it was from pre-season, his first game I think he scored. And then in LaLiga, it was the same.
“I knew he’d be very good but I thought in three or four years. He comes here and just destroys the league really and decides to be the best player. And in a club where Vinicius is there, Rodrygo, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, he’s gone ‘I’m the best’.”
Asked about Bellingham’s trademark celebration, Orlandi said: “I call it football arrogance. You can see he’s down to earth but the way he celebrates, ‘I’m Jude Bellingham, I’m here to make the difference’. I love that. And you need to have that if you want to be playing for Real Madrid at the level he’s playing.”
And Orlandi, who started his career at Barcelona before playing in England with Swansea, Brighton and Blackpool, says Madrid are already reliant upon Bellingham in the big games.
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“Without him, Real Madrid is not the same team,” he said. “They can still manage to win games, but they don’t have the star player who basically understands every situation that’s happening on the pitch – and that’s very difficult. To have that football intelligence and then with that body, being so strong, big, that technical ability as well.
“He’s got absolutely everything. He’s got the number five of Zinedine Zidane, he’s just signed for Real Madrid for big money, he’s got huge expectations on him and he just turns up and plays like he’s with his mates on a Sunday. So that tells you how big his personality is. England has a star.”
More Jude Bellingham stories
Jude Bellingham ahead of Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo? A former team-mate of the Real Madrid legends has explained how the England midfielder has the edge on the Frenchman and the Portuguese.
Jude Bellingham has matched a David Beckham stat at Real Madrid – in half a season in Spain.
Meanwhile, it has been claimed that Bellingham rejected Manchester United because the Red Devils were unable to guarantee him first-team football at Old Trafford.
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Ben Hayward is the Weekend Editor of FourFourTwo. A European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world – including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America – and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.
