Mark Bellingham’s not crying, honest. There was a moment during Jude Bellingham’s presentation at Real Madrid, not long after he had stood up and offered his first, brief words in Spanish, when the cameras showed his father’s face and there was the tiniest hint of a tear, which well there might be.
His son, though, was not so sure. “I don’t know if it was just sweat, to be fair: he doesn’t cry often,” the 19-year-old said, another smile creeping across his face on a morning when there were many of them. “I’m going to have to watch it back closely and maybe give him some banter.”
If he does watch it back, he will see that his first performance as a Real Madrid player was flawless; the impact on everyone here immediate. And if his dad was crying, well, why not? That’s his son up there holding the No 5 shirt once worn by Zinedine Zidane, enjoying what he called the most important day of his life. “It means a lot to them because it means a lot to me,” Bellingham said. Denise and Mark had seen the whole thing through, too, this the culmination of their work as well as his. There had also been discussions with England teammates trying to convince him to play in the Premier League, with Gareth Southgate, Carlo Ancelotti and even briefly with Zidane, he revealed, but now it was done.
It had all started 15 months ago. “I had always been aware of interest from England, so that was pretty normal,” Bellingham said. “But it was a bit of a surprise when Dad sat me down and told me about Madrid. I got goosebumps, my heart was close to stopping. It’s just something you don’t expect, to be able to play for a team like this. So when it actually manifests itself, it’s an amazing feeling.”
When you actually turn up, even more so. Asked what had most struck him on his first day, Bellingham replied: “The room I signed the contract in has all 14 of the [European Cup] trophies. They’re staring at you and you can’t wait to get your hands on one.
“Lots of teams are interested in you,” he continued. “I don’t think about money: never have, never will. I play for pure love. I loved the feeling I got from the club, I told them almost straight away and I wanted it to happen quickly. It’s not the case that other teams are bad, it’s just that Real Madrid are the greatest. You grow up, watch games, and that’s what appealed to me. It has a great history and you want to be a player who adds to that. When they pitched the vision of the team, I was all in. It’s not just the fact that it’s Real Madrid – although that is enough – but the ideas they have, the respect they treated my family with. It was seamless. It’s so exciting.”
Not that the decision went unchallenged, of course. “At the World Cup, with the national team, it is hard,” Bellingham said. “They all wanted me to come back to England and play for their team but I like the idea of being out of my comfort zone. Maybe it’s easier to go back to the Premier League but I just couldn’t turn down Madrid. The exact moment it was done is hard to say, but I had the meeting when they came to my house and I was sold [on the idea], to be honest. The [2022] final when they beat Liverpool was a huge factor but there are a load of things that go into making the decision.”
That day in Paris, Bellingham had spoken to the man whose shirt he will wear. Actually, that’s not entirely true. The shirt he has belongs to Jesús Vallejo, or it did – and almost the first thing he did was say thanks, another of many small gestures that he handled well here. “I contacted him to see if that was OK and he was so nice about it,” Bellingham said. “In my heart I am still a 22, just wearing a five on the back. We’ll see in future what number I wear.” Then he revealed: “There was a little question [asked of] Zidane in the final. I didn’t want to make it too obvious. If he had let me, I would have talked his ear off. It’s a big honour to wear his number.”
A big pressure too? If so, it didn’t show. “I know the demands are great but I think it’s a brilliant responsibility and I will embrace that. When you play in a professional environment with grown men from 15, 16 you learn to grow up faster,” he said, a smoothness, a confidence, an ease about him, every response pitch perfect. There was enthusiasm and openness too, this whole adventure seen not as something to fear but to embrace. It may help internationally as well, Bellingham talking about how he could give England “a different football culture, a different style”, while his teammates can bring the “Premier League side”. That suits Southgate: “I spoke to Gareth quite a bit recently and he has always been so supportive. He texted me this morning to wish me well.
“I have had a little bit of contact with Ancelotti and he’s an amazing coach: his CV, his record, speaks for itself. It’s a brilliant opportunity to work with one of the greatest coaches there has been and I’m really looking forward to it. I am a midfielder who can do a bit of everything, whatever the manager asks for. I’ll do it with no fuss, anything to help the team really. And working with [Luka] Modric and [Toni] Kroos is invaluable, unbelievable for their knowledge of the game, their experience, the way they play. I will try to steal everything they have got. They’ll probably get annoyed with me for the first week.”
'I'm a big fan, by the way.'
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) June 15, 2023
When Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham met @sidlowe … pic.twitter.com/sXsVW8h0Zu
He neatly dribbled round inquiries on Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé. That was “none of my business”, he said, while describing the Englishman as “a world-class player, my captain with the national team; I love him as a player and a person”, and replying to the inevitable question about wanting to play with the Frenchman with a simple: “Who wouldn’t?” He said he didn’t even know the exact amount he had cost, and didn’t much care either: “I am a footballer, not a lawyer or an accountant and it is my job to take my football on to the pitch.” As for the No 5, well, he insisted: “This [Madrid] shirt is enough responsibility in itself. Maybe for you guys I have put myself in an uncomfortable position but for me it is just a bit of a homage.”
“I’m just trying to be Jude,” Mark and Denise Bellingham’s son said, and on this evidence that will do very nicely.
