So… A few weeks ago, I heard something that really
piqued my interest… Tony Cascarino, an ex-Marseille player, who
not only faced Zidane in his younger years, but has gone on record saying that he considers
him to be the greatest of all time…. has also said that Jude Bellingham reminds him
of Zidane like no other player he’s ever watched… In fact, he has said that he believes he has
the potential to surpass French legend… I don’t think I have to explain how impactful
these words are, we are talking about the greatest midfielder of all time… As Cascarino would say… Bellingham and Zidane are the same height,
they have similar builds, they share that same characteristic long stride and they’re
so incredibly elegant, they seem invulnerable to any kind of pressure from the defenders… And personally that’s exactly what I saw
as well… but just like Cascarino would go on to say “The thing is Zidane was never
blisteringly quick, that was one of the few things he lacked… And Bellingham he has that… He might not be just as technically gifted
as Zidane, but he is faster and more versatile”... And you know what’s ironic… he finished
that whole speech by saying that one of the things Bellingham has to improve in order
to get closer to Zidane is his heading ability… Well, Bellingham has already scored 4 goals
for Real… and 2 of them… were headers… And the coincidences don’t end there, when
they asked Bellingham who was his idol and role model, he said Zidane… when they asked
Zidane about Bellingham, he described him as a modern age version of himself… When Bellingham had to pick the number of
his shirt, Vallejo gave up Zidane’s number 5 so Jude could have it, claiming that if
anyone deserved it, it was him… and even more eerie than all of that, when Bellingham
scored his first goal for Real, people were quick to notice that it resembled a goal Zidane
had scored for the same club… And to wrap up all of this, there are rumors
that Zidane could be back training Real next year, imagine Zidane coaching Bellingham… It would be like coaching himself… Who knows how much better Bellingham could
get, he’s only 20 years old, already a 100 million dollar player, he seems to have his
head in the right place and the potential of becoming the greatest british midfielder
of all time… I sincerely think one day children will want
to pretend to be Bellingham, the same way he used to pretend to be Zidane when he was
a kid… Actually, to be fair, until about the age
of 7, Bellingham strangely did not care about football, despite his father Mark Bellingham
being a non league football legend, playing for 20 different clubs and scoring over 700
goals in his career… In fact, he only began playing football, because
his father once set up a youth team and needed more players… But as you may imagine, they were all shocked
to see that Bellingham was an absolute natural at the sport… Only a year later, he was already joining
Birmingham’s academy and with each year that passed, he began scoring more and more
goals… By the time he turned 10, he was already so
good that the coaches wanted him to play with the older kids, but naturally being a kid,
he threw a fit, saying he wanted to stay in the same team as his friends, so they set
up a whole thing, where since both teams played at the same time every weekend, he would play
half a match with each team so he could start getting used to playing against tougher opposition… And it was all good, until one day he came
to play the second half with the kids his age and ended up scoring 15 goals… Yes, 15 goals in a single half of football… After that, he just couldn’t argue with
the coaches anymore, even he knew he had to be moved up and well… from there on out,
he just kept on breaking records… At 13, he was already playing for England’s
under 15’s and he was even made captain… At 15, he was already playing with Birmingham’s
under 23’s… By 16, he already caught the eye of the first
team coaches… and once Pep Clotet took over as manager, he was instantly brought to the
main team, as he went on to say “The moment I saw him I knew he had to be there… Have I ever seen a 16 year old like him? Only once, his name was Lionel Messi”... And he wasn’t the only one who saw his potential,
that same year, FourFourTwo magazine listed Jude as one of the 50 most exciting teenagers
in English football… and sure he was literally only 49th on the list… but he was also younger
than anyone else on it… and had attracted interest from damn near every club in europe… Had to this a call up to the Syrenka Cup with
England’s under 17’s where he captained his team to the trophy, even scoring in the
final and being named player of the tournament and by the time he was back with Birmingham,
he was breaking a 49 year old record to become Birmingham City’s youngest ever debutant…
at 16 years and 38 days… and the craziest thing is this was no novelty, no handout,
when they asked his teammates about him, they said “He is already the best player in training,
everyday… No player in the team can match Jude, he is
simply a cut above”... Again, these are grown adults, professional
football players, talking about a literal child… Regardless, as he kept going things only looked
more hopeful, on his second match, despite a heavy 3 nil defeat he was named man of the
match… On his third game, finally getting to play
at home, he came in late, with the team trailing behind, he not only inspired the comeback,
but made sure to score the winning goal himself, rightfully becoming the youngest goalscorer
in their history… Add to this another goal in the next match
and by the end of the month he was already being named the young player in the league… Of course, with the hype building up, it was
also then that Manchester United first went all in for his signing, reportedly offering
20 million pounds, even bringing out Cantona to give him a tour of the Carrington training
center, but Bellingham still opted to remain at Birmingham for a while… Then, even with the season getting disrupted
by the pandemic, nothing could stop him and once football resumed, he even assisted a
late equalizer that saved Birmingham from going down to the relegation zone with 2 games
to go… By the time the season was over, obviously
United came back, trying to persuade him to join them, but as Birmingham’s CEO would
say “United were offering him more money than anyone else, maybe twice as much… He was guaranteed millions in the back and
he still didn’t take it… Right there I knew this was no average player”... And so instead, impressed by the development
of Jadon Sancho over the previous years, Bellingham opted to join Dortmund instead, for a fee
of 25 million pounds, making him the most expensive 17 year old in history… But here’s where some controversy arrived… You see, upon his departure, Birmingham shocked
everyone by retiring his jersey… Look, not only is that not really a thing
that happens in English football too often… but he was a 17 year old who played 44 matches
for the club… meaning that the fans were a bit ruthless, calling Birmingham a tinpot
club, mocking them in every way imaginable for this strange decision… However, I gotta say, even though back then
this did seem weird on paper, looking back now it’s clear that Bellingham is the best
player to ever play for them… No one would be too upset if West Ham retired
Lampard’s number… So in a way I think Birmingham were just ahead
of their time, they were the first to realize that sooner or later Bellingham would be one
of the greatest English players of all time… And once at Dortmund, they were pretty quick
to catch onto that same thing, with Thomas Delaney even noting that “Him and Haaland
are similar, they have this loose wire which changes them completely… this mentality of winning, everywhere, all
the time”... And so rightfully, on his debut for the club,
having just recently turned 17, he made sure to score, becoming the youngest ever to do
so… 5 days later, he assisted Reyna against Monchengladbach
and as quick as that he was already being named Bundesliga Rookie of the month… Things come easy when you’re as good as
Jude Bellingham… And so two months later, he was called up
to the English National Team for the first time… becoming the third youngest to ever
play for England, for comparison, he was a full year younger than Michael Owen, who is
often talked about as one of the most precocious wonderkids in history… Ironically, he would debut against the Republic
of Ireland, who he was also eligible to play for through his dad’s side of the family,
so yeah… a bit awkward but moving on… Despite starting the year on the sidelines,
with a foot injury, he was quick to get back on top of things, not just scoring against
Man City as Dortmund got knocked out of the Champions League, but also winning the German
Cup, his first ever trophy, the award for best newcomer of the season and being named
in the Squad for the 2020 Euros… Becoming the youngest player from any nation
to ever take part in the competition… Still, not only did he barely get any minutes,
but 5 days later Kozlowski beat his record, so you know… take that with a grain of salt… Regardless, his second season would start
with second coach René Maric bringing up the comparisons once more, claiming he was
the perfect mix of Gerrard and Zidane, and then witnessing, as, with the departures of
Haaland and Sancho, Bellingham quickly became the team’s star player, taking on the role
of a leader and becoming more and more vocal… at one point even getting into trouble after
a controversial VAR decision, calling out the referee over the fact he had been involved
in a match fixing scandal before, saying “You give a guy like that the biggest game in Germany… What did you expect?” which obviously the
FA didn’t take too kindly to, fining him 40 thousand euros… But to be fair, I'm pretty sure everyone agrees
with him, so fair play Jude… Add to this the fact, he had put up 2 assists
in that same game, after already getting on the scoresheet in his supercup match against
Bayern, as well as some seriously good performances in the Champions League and by the end of
the year as Pedri took the Kopa Trophy and the Golden Boy Award for the best young player
in the world, Bellingham took the second spot in both occasions, which I’m sure stinged
a bit, but come on… Pedri is nearly a full year older than him
and this was still a massive achievement… And well, at least by the end of the season,
with 20 goal contributions in 44 matches, despite the fact at times he even played in
a defensive midfield role… he was named in the Bundesliga team of the season for the
first time… And just like that, we arrived at his final
season at Dortmund, where having just turned 19 years of age, he was handed the captain’s
armband, becoming the youngest captain in the history of the bundesliga and sending
him on a crazy run that saw him hit the best form of his career up till that moment, starting
by going on a run of 8 goals and 7 assists in 21 matches… which only sounds crazier
once I mentioned that midway through it he played his first ever world cup… So, with Kalvin Phillips struggling for minutes
at Man City, Southgate decided to call on Bellingham to fill that void and well… it paid off… Right on the first match, Bellingham scored
the opening goal and was involved in two more… In the last 16, he opened the score with a
great assist for Jordan Henderson and then he started the play that led to Kane’s goal… Add to all of this a great performance vs
France as England got knocked out and who knows what could have happened had Kane not
missed his penalty… but one thing is sure, Jude Bellingham was leading his team in everything
from shots created, to blocks, defensive actions, progressive passes and even dribbles… it
wasn’t even that arguable, the 19 year old had been the best player on the team… And with the whole world watching, it was
once again obvious that his team wouldn’t hold onto him for much longer… And so following 2 months where the most memorable
moment came as Jude learned from his former mistakes, addressing another controversial
refereeing moment by pretty much pulling off Mourinho’s iconic “I prefer not to speak”,
Dortmund went on to spend 3 months on top of the table, only for Jude to then be sidelined
in the final match of the season with a knee injury, watching as his teammates failed to
beat the mighty Mainz, virtually handing out the title to rivals Bayern Munich in what
was the club’s best chance at a title in 11 years… Well, let’s just say first Bellingham left
the pitch in tears and then he began planning a way to leave the club for good… Regardless it has to be said, it was a phenomenal
season for Bellingham, even without the Bundesliga title, the 19 year old not only led the league
in both dribbles and progressive carries but he was also top 3 when it came to tackles
in the final third and he even scored 14 goals, more than twice as much as he had managed
in any other season of his career which was even enough to earn him the award for the
league’s player of the year, as well as compliments from both Mourinho and Guardiola,
with the first saying he loved “everything about Bellingham” and the other saying,
regarding his age that “he has to be lying, it’s unbelievable, what a fantastic player”.... And so rightfully, after a long back and forth
with Liverpool, Real Madrid pulled the trigger and paid 103 million dollars, which could
go up to 134 with the add ons, to make Jude Bellingham a Galactico at the age of only
20… As Peter Drury would say, Bellingham, from
Birmingham to the Bernabeu… In fact, Birmingham were lucky enough to have
a sell-on clause, getting 6 more million from this transfer… But yeah, though everyone expected him to
succeeded, after all with 15 goal contributions in 18 hundred minutes of playing time in the
Champions League, he should fit right in at Real Madrid, no one expected what would happen
next, as of today, Bellingham has gone above and beyond what anyone expected from his debut
season at Real, scoring on his debut, then getting 2 goals and an assist on his second
match, and heading a late winner in his third match to become the third ever player to score
in all of his first 3 matches for the club, only matched by Sneijder and the great Cristiano
Ronaldo… Not only that, but he has been named man of
the match in every single match he played for Real so far, all of his goal contributions
came when Madrid were level or trailing behind, earning them 5 of the 9 points they have collected
so far and quickly establishing himself as one of the most loved players in the squad,
as he said it himself “I’m already 10 times better than I was last season” and
we all hope he will only get better…. Though I have to say his father ruptured his
ACL twice over his career, and those things tend to be genetic, so be careful Jude…
