This walk was one of the hardest in his career. A good year ago, when all the fans in the Dortmund stadium were in shock, Jude Bellingham walked alone and in civilian clothes in front of the south stand. It was full, but completely silent. BVB had just experienced a collective collapse with traumatic consequences: the team had lost the championship they thought they had secured because they had only managed a 2:2 draw against Mainz 05.
The day Bellingham said goodbye was one of the darkest in Dortmund’s recent club history. His teammates sat on the pitch and cried. The Englishman himself had been unable to play on the last matchday of the 2022/23 season due to a knee injury. “We let you down,” Bellingham wrote to BVB fans on Instagram afterwards – a week and a half later, he moved to Real Madrid for a transfer fee of 103 million euros.
He had always dreamed of this – but the bitter circumstances of his departure affected him. The 20-year-old midfielder would hardly have dared to dream of a reunion under completely different, if equally unusual, circumstances. On Saturday, Bellingham will face BVB with Real in the Champions League final (9 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker), and at Wembley – the venue that has an almost mystical significance for every English footballer. “This is something like the crowning glory of a great season. To come back to England, to play against Dortmund – I am very grateful,” he said before traveling to London with the Spanish record champions, who are the overwhelming favorites. This special final constellation makes him “as happy as a child,” explained Bellingham, grinning from ear to ear.
Bellingham went from exceptional talent to world star
This childlike joy is in stark contrast to the impression the 20-year-old gives when he is on the pitch. There he comes across as a seasoned, exceptionally mature player. With sleepwalking certainty he plays precise passes, wins duels and boosts the offensive game.
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Bellingham was named the best player in the Spanish league after just his first season. He combines many different talents – but his most striking feature is the naturalness that he exudes. He scored 19 goals in the Primera Division – no other Real Madrid midfielder has managed this in this century.
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He has gone from being an exceptional talent to a world star. His current market value is estimated at 180 million euros by the specialist portal transfermarkt.de (which, like WELT, belongs to Axel Springer SE). This puts him on a par with Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland. The data professionals at the “CIES Football Observatory” see him, albeit on a different basis of factors, with a market value of 280 million euros, ahead of the leader from the previous summer. According to them, Haaland is now in second place with 255 million euros, and third place goes to Real star Vinícius Júnior (240 million euros).
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Whatever the case, Bellingham made the right decision last summer when a whole series of top clubs were vying for him. In Madrid he met a coach who managed to take him to the next level. Carlo Ancelotti realised that there was more to Bellingham than the already impressive versatility he had demonstrated in his three years in the Bundesliga. While in Dortmund he was mostly used in central defensive midfield or as a link between defence and attack, Ancelotti lets him play in the playmaker position or as a hanging striker. The six and eight became a ten. Bellingham plays the king role for the Royals.
“The way he plays reminds me of Zinedine Zidane because of his exceptional qualities on the ball,” said Ancelotti. The comparison with the Frenchman is a little off, said the experienced coach. The 1998 world champion was “perhaps technically better,” “but Bellingham compensates for that with the way he goes into the penalty area. There are only a few players in the world who can do that like him.” It is the fluid movements with which Bellingham takes the ball and carries it before looking to score that impress Ancelotti so much.
The father, hero of non-league football, as a role model
There is hardly a more complete midfielder. Above all, there is no one who has reached this level at such a young age. One possible explanation for this lies in Bellingham’s personality – and in his biography. Although he joined Birmingham City’s academy at the age of eight, he is not a classic product of the youth performance centers. At the age of 16 he was already a regular player in the Championship, the English second division. Unlike other talents, he was exposed to the tough, tough nature of men’s football at an early age. Bellingham always knew how to defend himself – he learned that from his father.
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Mark Bellingham was one of the heroes of non-league football, as the lower leagues are called in England. Bellingham Senior, a police officer by profession, played more than 1,000 games for 25 different clubs from the fifth division downwards in the West Midlands over 25 years. Jude often accompanied him to games – and saw how rough it was on the pitch. The fouls, the provocations, the trash talk – all of this was very enlightening for him. He once said that “the toughness and hardness of non-league football is reflected in my game.” He learned early on that it’s not just about playing well, but also about being able to take and dish it out.
Bellingham is still a little hotheaded – which is sometimes interpreted as disrespectful. In Dortmund, he would sometimes hiss at teammates if they made a poor pass or took the wrong path. Some people thought this was not appropriate for such a young player. In Madrid, surrounded by respectable greats such as Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, he tries to keep his words a little more reserved. He knows that – no matter how important he has already become for the team – he has to show respect.
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“One time,” said Bellingham, he was “simply sitting at the dinner table with his highly decorated colleagues and listening. I sat there like a child.” This is one of his fondest memories of his first year at Real Madrid. “And it’s great that I’m now able to create new memories with them.”
It is quite possible that he will succeed in the final on Saturday at Wembley, because the club’s history in the Champions League is unique. Real Madrid has already won the premier class or its predecessor, the European Cup, 14 times – more than any other club in Europe. In the last ten years alone, they have won five times. Since the start of the Champions League in 1992/1993, the Royals have won all eight finals they have played in since then. The last European Cup final that Real lost was 41 years ago: in 1983, they lost 2-1 after extra time to Aberdeen FC in the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
