Bellinguism has been unleashed at Real Madrid, where superlatives are exhausted to praise the Englishman. Comparisons are made with Zidane, and it seems that the French star falls short, and directly with Di Stéfano, which is already a comparison. Di Stéfano revived a team that had only won one League before the Civil War and none since the end of the war. He arrived at the age of 26 from Colombian soccer and in his first season (1953-1954) he changed the direction of the wind and history. Madrid won the League, repeated in the next one and won the first five editions of the European Cup, from 1956 to 1960. “Who would have thought that that little drink was going to become the outrage that it is now?” Di Stéfano used to comment. In a way, Bellingham, like all the great international stars since the seventies, is at Real Madrid because of the Di Stéfano effect. A team with strictly local roots became a global soccer brand. Playing for Madrid is a natural aspiration for any great player, answered 600 kilometers to the northeast by Barça. The two clubs established an incomparable dialectic on the football map. On one side Cruyff, Schuster, Maradona, Laudrup, Romário, Ronaldo, Figo, Ronaldinho and Messi. On the other, Netzer, Hugo Sánchez, Roberto Carlos, Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Modric and Bellingham. With the tinsel of those names the best of football history in the last 50 years is built, perfectly seasoned by the national product: Butragueño, Míchel, Sanchís, Fernando Hierro, Raúl and Casillas on one side and Guardiola, Xavi, Puyol, Víctor Valdés, Iniesta, Busquets and Piqué on the other. Such an exhaustive list of great players is astonishing, impossible to surpass anywhere else in world football. Therefore, it is advisable to carefully measure the comparisons of the current best with the legends of other eras.
While Bellingham writes his first pages at Real Madrid, there is no doubt that we are facing a formidable footballer, what Butragueño would agree to call a superior being. Some phenomena take time to prove his fame. They need a little time and adaptation to the team. In the English, no matter how good they have been in his island career, a historical aversion to the continental model stands out. A truly impactful footballer is not remembered until the recent arrival of Bellingham to Real Madrid and Harry Kane to Bayern. Now that there is so much talk about paradigm shifts, or however you say it, the happy entry of two English figures into two aircraft carriers of European football takes on enormous significance. For once, the best from there are the best from here. It had never happened. It indicates the regenerative effect of coaches like Guardiola, Klopp or De Zerbi in the Premier and their influence on the emergence of a spectacular group of footballers. No team has more and better talents than England, most of them young or very young. At the head of all, Jude Bellingham, who turned 20 last summer.
Sottovoce is spoken about Mbappé, who during the previous season massively occupied the front pages of the newspapers. Bellingham has put an end to Mbappé fever, although not with the desire to sign him. There is no memory of a Bernabéu as enamored of a player as Bellingham is now: 11 goals in 13 games, 15 in all competitions, governor of all areas of the field, with all kinds of records, undisputed leader of the team with only a handful of parties.
The exaltation is so great that in each match the prodigies of the Englishman are taken for granted. That's why he missed his performance in the victory against Granada. Bellingham left details, but did not overwhelm. Since it seems that there is no human who can defeat him, it was concluded that the kryptonite man was the referee. His name is González Fuertes, from Gijon by birth and, in the general opinion of Real Madrid fans, Martian by profession.
