Whenever a young player with immense potential signs up for Real Madrid, I tend to think of Richard Branson—a stupid person’s idea of a smart man—and how the quickest way to become a millionaire is to become a billionaire and launch a new airline. Yeah, the mind works in mysterious ways. Launching an airline company is a wild punt, where you leave your future up to the whims of the unknown, and you’re most likely going to fail. This is very similar to signing up for Real Madrid, a stuff of naked dreams but it rarely turns out as you think it would.
Is there ever a perfect time to play for Real Madrid? Well, Jude Bellingham surely believes there is. It feels like he was meant to play for this club. The most striking feature of Bellingham’s at Madrid is of course the goals; it has come in all forms and textures. The easy tap-ins, the icy cool finish in tight areas, the wonderful solo effort tearing apart the midfield and psyche, the comfortable goals, and the last-minute winners that have kept Real Madrid at the top of the points table. For someone who is not an out-and-out striker, eight goals in nine La Liga matches is an absurd number. But it’s not just his goals. He is a dominant presence in the midfield, recording 20 blocks and drawing the most number of fouls.
Bellingham is enjoying his life in Madrid. In return, the citadel of the city, Santiago Bernabeu, has sold its soul to the young Englishman. There’s a sense of purity in the love that’s been showered upon him, by his teammates, by his coaches, by fans of Madrid, and by the Spanish press. Whether it’s limerence or the beginning of full-fledged romance is hard to predict, but whatever the form of this union and however it goes from here, it’s beautiful, it’s worth living in the moment rather than brooding over the future.
Bellingham has goals in his bellies, but he also owns the coldest, most ruthless celebration in world football. What strikes me about his celebration is its clinical efficiency. He just stands and opens his arms, as a clarion call for the Madrid fans to embrace him. And they have embraced him in whole. Santiago Bernabeu is an arena where love never comes easy, rage and dissatisfaction linger in the air and hostility is the perennial state, and yet Bellingham has managed to do what only a handful of young players have done in the past.
After his decisive goal against Union Berlin, when Bellingham turned towards the stands and opened his arm, the crowd reciprocated his love by imitating his celebration. The whole moment was plucked out of a philharmonic orchestra, the young kind Bellingham orchestrating the setup, and the apostles following his instructions.
When Bellingham fires a winner against Getafe, the whole stadium bursts into a soulful rendition of Hey Jude. “It’s the loudest moment I’ve heard in a stadium,” Bellingham told Real Madrid TV. “I can’t believe it to be honest. When [the crowd] were singing ‘Hey Jude’ at the end, I got goosebumps. I just wanted to turn and stand still and listen to it. It’s fitting to see the stadium singing out The Beatles’ hit because Bellingham himself sees football as an art, an ode to older eras when football hadn’t sold its soul to capitalism, and players were half artist half warrior. Like an artist, Bellingham has killer eyes for detail, and a vision that’s more romantic than utilitarian. “Around the pitch, I want to be an artist,” says Bellingham. I want to try to create stuff for my teammates, but when the ball goes into the box I want to be a killer.”
On Sunday, expectations will be high from Bellingham as Real Madrid prepare to take on Barcelona in the season’s first El Clasico. Bellingham has wasted no time in adjusting to the feverish demands of a club like Real Madrid, but the pressure against Barcelona will be unlike anything he has experienced so far in his career. “My greatest quality is that I can do a bit of everything,” Bellingham had said. “That’s my best strength and it allows me to play in different positions on the pitch.” Los Blancos would surely hope Bellingham does a bit of everything in the game, and help the club solidify their position at the top of the points table.
