I don't think this is particularly known or properly understood, but Jude Bellingham was always “scheduled” to play in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday. Only it was supposed to be for city of manchester against Real Madrid, instead of Bellingham, will travel to the northwest of England with the Spanish champions elected this week.
It was in January last year when I had a coffee with an unimpeachable Manchester City source who, when pressed and goaded, admitted that while City could make some ancillary changes during the summer of 2023, there were only two absolute targets that ” they should buy”: Joško Gvardiol. and Bellingham.
One said yes, Gvardiol, and the other said no: Jude, the guy. Any club, no matter how giant, can be forced to feel the pain of rejection. Top players have a variety of options, it's definitely a seller's market – no matter the history or wealth of your club, it's entirely possible to miss out on a transfer market target.
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But even once you set aside City's willingness to pay impressive salaries to their top targets, the idea of a young, talented and ambitious Englishman rejecting the offer to work and learn under Pep Guardiola and be likely to earn a minimum of two trophies in his first season. It's quite extraordinary. By the summer of 2023, Guardiola had been in charge for seven years and had won 14 trophies, an average of two per season.
What happened, and here I feel infinitely responsible, was that Bellingham had already decided, even before Guardiola let him know how important he could be for City, that if there was any possibility of swapping Borussia Dortmund for Madrid, then I would do it, without any commitment. question, I'm going to prioritize The whites above any team in the world.
Responsibility? Well, during the period when Spanish football was becoming the best, the most exciting, the most winning, the most technically advanced and intriguing on the planet, I was lucky enough to work as part of Sky Sports' LaLiga coverage in the UK: A constant total of 21 annual live match broadcasts from 1997 onwards, plus what I believe was an excellent weekly program called “Revista De La Liga”.
I remember, during that golden era, regularly telling people – fans, media and many members of the football industry – that I strongly anticipated this stream of exceptional, well-analysed football flowing into homes across the UK during 21 years would inspire and fundamentally alter how fans, coaches, players and media thought and talked about the sport we loved. I believed that LaLiga would have a seismic influence. Big waves in the pond.
The first interview I had with Bellingham this season was just after Madrid beat Unión Berlin 1-0 in their Group C match, when the Englishman, in his Champions League debut with the 14-time European champions , scored the winning goal in the 94th minute. It had been dramatic and a glorious moment for a 20-year-old who was barely a month into his first season at the Bernabéu.
He told me that “since he was little” he had a television in his room, on which he had watched “Madrid countless times, it gives you comebacks in situations in which you say 'there is no way for this to change'.” '”The Sky Sports LaLiga effect. That improbably late victory over Berlin was, specifically, precisely what had inspired him. That, specifically, was precisely what he had chosen to sign for Madrid.
Bellingham, like Gareth Bale before him, had been completely seduced by the magic of Real Madrid's history: the European dominance, the battles with Barcelona, the iconic white shirts, the constant array of all-time great footballers. who have been in The whites'books. Seduced by the opportunity to write his own name in that story. You can easily imagine it.
So, here we are. Madrid needs to beat City at their home and then they will have to face Barcelona in the Classic on Sunday (Stream LIVE starting at 2 pm ET on ESPN+). Precisely the hyper-important and potentially historic moments that Bellingham joined this club to influence. And they arrived in Manchester just when their energy and acuity had reached a low point.
Very few high-level athletes or coaches will admit to motives beyond winning a match, a medal or a crucial final, but they are human beings. The pasta is important but the sauce adds flavor, don't be fooled, it doesn't. In other words, Bellingham, along with Toni Kroos, Vinícius Júnior, Eduardo Camavinga, Antonio Rüdiger and others, have an important goal this week: eliminate the European champions and advance to the semi-final. But that's not all, and anyone who says so is lying.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, Bellingham will feel the desire to prove to Guardiola, City's director of football Txiki Begiristain, his England team-mates Phil Foden and Kyle Walker and, probably above all, himself, that he not only did well in choosing Madrid instead of the English Champions but he will be able to demonstrate it in Manchester, at City's headquarters.
The 20-year-old has been simply impressive this season. When he arrived at Madrid I told LaLiga TV that he had landed a phenomenon and I think he has proven it ten times. Change the culture, the language and the climate, play in the most wintry, political and quixotic club in the world, not only to cope but, in a matter of weeks, become one of the two or three most important footballers and in which the more you trust. At Real Madrid, it is a disproportionate achievement.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti, realizing how impactful, mature and determined his new recruit was, squeezed every last drop out of Bellingham. I think to the detriment of the player.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the attitude, ideas or level of English performance; In fact, if he had played like he has in the last games of the entire season, in May people would be saying “this is impressive, he has adapted, he has contributed AND even greater things are to come.”
1:47
Why the 'special' Bellingham deserves his top spot among ESPN's best under-21 players
Mark Ogden talks about Jude Bellingham's number one ranking among ESPN FC's Top 39 Under-21 Men's Players.
The problem is that Bellingham set such extraordinary standards for itself that when the immense workload it has carried (3,000 minutes, the fourth most used player, even after 38 days injured and 30 goal contributions) has an impact, and the needle drops even marginally, then the Spanish media reports it as if it were some kind of panic-inducing crisis. Fools.
It is not his statistics (certainly not them alone) that mark an era in this first season in Spain. It's Jude's nerve. It's his total, crazy mutual love for Madrid, it's his vision, his ambition, his self-confidence, it's the fun he brings to football and it's the fact that he oozes charm, wit and fun when he plays. He interacts with the media.
It's the fact that no one at Madrid, not even the seen-it-all veterans like Kroos and Luka Modric, is immune to his charm nor will they evade his critical gaze if they have failed to meet his standards. Highly motivated, very demanding. He also has a shoulder problem caused by a heavy fall against Rayo Vallecano since November.
From that day until now he has been playing through pain, his left shoulder has been supported by a tight sports brace and, in my opinion, all of this is gradually eroding the simply exceptional level of performance that Bellingham has shown since Day 1 in Spain. . Literally no one outside the club has put adequate emphasis on how debilitating and exhausting this can be.
What's more, I think that constant and annoying pain in his shoulder, in addition to his fierce will to win and the fact that he is not taking a good beating from the Spanish referees, come together to explain the frequency with which the Englishman been ready to growl and show his short fuse in recent weeks.
In my opinion it is a healthy sign. He is confident in his surroundings, he is fiercely competitive and there is ferocity when he is not happy with something. All of these traits are integral parts of the winner's DNA, which Bellingham possesses. But his fury cannot be all-consuming to the point of distraction.
Ancelotti's comment earlier this season was: “Bellingham is a fighter, a winner who sometimes gets carried away when he is not able to guarantee that we win a match.”
But we are entering a moment in which Bellingham, even at 20 years old and in his debut season, needs to be one of those who makes Madrid win a game. One against the current champions, one that, with any type of victory, would put The whites in the semi-finals [again] and that allowed him to shake Guardiola's hand, look him in the eyes and say: “Sorry for rejecting you Pep, but look what you missed! Do you understand my decision now?”
And then maybe I could win the Classic for Madrid just as your great goal helped them do in Barcelona?
Great Wednesday night, I wish you the best. But whether or not he has the right material to eliminate City and Madrid, this will continue to be an absolutely extraordinary season for the Englishman abroad.
