Signed as a 19-year-old with the world at his feet, Jude Bellingham has been tasked with a bigger burden than he would probably have hoped for.
Bellingham has been involved in more goals (14) than games he has played for the club since his arrival (12) across all competitive games.
The Englishman has 11 goals to his name, eight in the Spanish La Liga and three in the UEFA Champions League while he has also racked up three assists in the two competitions.
Not sure anyone would have anticipated the youngster would hit the ground running immediately considering how Madrid’s last big buy fared upon his arrival in the Spanish capital. Eden Hazard arrived from Chelsea in 2019 and never became the player he was while in England nor even France.
But for Bellingham, it has worked quite well since joining from Borussia Dortmund, where he was a superstar for all the period he spent at Signal Iduna Park.
Coming into the season, Real Madrid were looking to add firepower to the squad following the departure of Karim Benzema but deals for Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe were far from being a reality with Florentino Perez and the club deciding against signing anyone aside the loan deal for Joselu Mato.
After impressing alongside Benzema last season, Rodrygo Goes and Vinicius Jr were expected to be the people carrying the team in the absence of the Frenchman or a potent goal scorer.
However, the team has a new face, a new leader and a new poacher.
Bellingham has assumed the role of being the ‘clinical guy’ in front of goal so far this season for Carlo Ancelotti’s side and there has been no sign of him slowing down.
The now 20-year-old has scored in all but three league games so far in the 2023/24 season and two of them have been defeats for Los Blancos.
In fact, the club has failed to win any away game that the player has not netted, dropping points against Atletico Madrid and Sevilla. The other game he failed to score was a 2-1 home win over Real Sociedad.
Bellingham’s attitude and relationship with his teammates has made life at Madrid easy for him with fans also showing appreciation every now and then.
At the moment where the two Brazilian forwards are struggling, the Englishman has filled in quite well and there is optimism he would go on to be the key player to get the goals when things get tough at the club.
Despite being played out of position, the midfielder is loving it and can only take advantage of the spaces his teammates create for him to punish opposition.
Long to go until the end of the campaign but Bellingham’s early days are a sign of good things to come if the team starts firing once again with Ancelotti’s men still keeping their place at the top of the table in La Liga.
