Real Madrid only has one name in mind to be the ‘new Modric’. Is Jude Victor William Bellingham, an 18-year-old midfielder who plays for Borussia Dortmund, but who at his young age already left his mark on the club where he was trained: Birmingham City. So much so that the English club decided to withdraw number 22 having only played one season with the first team.
and part of the success is a matter of three Spaniards. Pep Clotet He was managing the English team at the time and decided that Jude would make the final jump to the first team. An experiment backed from the start by Paco Herrerawho for that year was his assistant, and for Andrew Manzanocurrent general director of UE Cornellà and who at that time was key in the progress of the English footballer for being a sports advisor to Birmingham.
Clotet directed the Italian SPAL until a few weeks ago and once the news of Real Madrid’s interest was known, he wanted share on AS his experiences with Bellingham between 2019 and 2020. It was a year of work that left a great friendship between the two.
What can Bellingham contribute when Modric decides to stop?
Jude is a very complete player, he plays very well in attack, in defence… He is a strong player who, despite his age, has experience in the Champions League and the national team. He is so dynamic that he can be a wild card for the Real Madrid game. Defensively he is very involved and offensively he always arrives. He covers a lot of ground and is a very focused guy with a lot of concern about stealing up and down fast. It is difficult to classify him because despite being young it is not easy to see his ceiling. He has always stood out he has an ambition and maturity far ahead of his age. He can contribute everything that is asked of him because he fits many profiles.
History tells us that it is difficult for English players to join Real Madrid. Do you think the same thing could happen to Bellingham?
I understand the question because in Spain we tend to think like that. Jude has the ability to adapt and he has shown it in Germany. Because he is young and because he has already played in two very competitive leagues such as the Championship and the Bundesliga. It is true that signing for Madrid are big words, but he has adapted very well to German football. He is very intelligent and I see him with that ambition to win and succeed. When you meet him you see that he has that healthy and innate competitiveness to help. He is so focused on this football that he can adapt to different leagues. It is true that LaLiga is different from the other leagues in Northern Europe, but Bellingham is also different from the rest.
Artificial Intelligence predicts a 35% improvement in Jude’s contribution to Ancelotti’s Madrid team… do you think the same?
Totally, what you comment is in line with what I have always thought. Bellingham has no roof. At the beginning, when we promoted him, the team had to help him because he was very young, but it didn’t take long for him to be the one helping his team. And the artificial intelligence forecast confirms what I experienced with it. He ended up helping the team a lot. It’s very hard to find a player Jude’s age who has that immediate performance and that journey for the future. He is and will be much bigger at a European level.
He is 18 years old, but he has no shame with the elders. Did you see that cheek coming?
In Birmingham I saw him play for the under-18 team. He later went up to the sub-21 and did not play. I saw him play when I was fifteen years old and when I was sixteen I took him to a pre-season and I remember that from the beginning he was one more in training. Paco Herrera, who worked with me and who has brought out so many kids, told me that Bellingham was going to be great. He looked like he had been in the pro team his whole life and was only sixteen years old. It is that in fifteen days he was competing with the professionals. He was born for soccer because his family is also a soccer fan. His little brother plays a lot and very well and his father holds the title of top scorer in the Birmingham leagues, but because of his work he couldn’t be a professional.
They have a very good relationship. Has he ever confessed the next dream to you?
Jude has always been a huge Birmingham fan. He was born in an English environment, in a country where you join the club of the city where you are born. It is not as polarized as Spain, where many are from Madrid, many from Barça and others from the rest… There you belong to the club of the city where you were born. It doesn’t matter what category you play in. He will always have Birmingham in his heart. But we’ve talked a lot about his future and his family makes decisions based on future growth. That is what pushed him to accept Borussia Dortmund’s offer because there was a lot of competition. I talk to him a lot and we’ve talked about football in Spain and I’ve told him that he has qualities that are more for one team than for another and I see that he’s a footballer who can be found very well at Madrid.