BINH DUONG
With his move to Real Madrid, midfielder Jude Bellingham has become the sixth English player to play for the “White Vultures”. Before Bellingham, the Spanish Royal team had the services of Laurie Cunningham, Steve McManaman, David Beckham, Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate.
Recruiting Bellingham (center) helps Real Madrid gradually complete the new "Galaxy" squad alongside existing young stars such as Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni. Photo: Getty Images
“Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund have reached an agreement to sign Jude Bellingham, who will be with the club for the next six seasons. Bellingham will be presented on June 15,” Real Madrid confirmed on their website. The announcement also ended the race for Bellingham’s signature, which also saw the participation of many other “big guys” such as PSG, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.
According to the Mail Sport, Real Madrid will pay Borussia Dortmund around £88.5m to sign Bellingham, but that will rise to £113.5m due to performance-related add-ons worth £25m - which are believed to be achievable. That would make Bellingham the most expensive footballer ever produced in England.
Bellingham came through the youth system at Birmingham City (England) and shone brightly in the Championship before joining Borussia Dortmund in Germany. Despite being only 19 years old, he was already a captain and a mainstay, helping his team compete for the championship with Bayern Munich until the final round of the Bundesliga this season. Bellingham left Borussia Dortmund after contributing 24 goals and 25 assists in 132 appearances.
Bellingham is still the youngest player in Birmingham City's history (playing at 16 years and 38 days). He was first called up to the England team at 17. There were two surprises when Bellingham decided to leave Birmingham City in 2020. Firstly, he chose Borussia Dortmund instead of the famous Man United, continuing to develop his career outside the foggy country. Previously, English players were not a quality "product". But in modern times, that is changing partly thanks to Borussia Dortmund. The German team has built a reputation by nurturing young players and, importantly, allowing them to leave at the right time for a "huge" transfer fee.
The second surprise was that after selling Bellingham, Birmingham City decided to retire the number 22 shirt that this young star used to wear. Honoring by permanently retiring the shirt is rare in England, even for good players when retiring. The late legend Diego Maradona wore the number 10 shirt for Argentina Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, Newell's Old Boys and the Argentina national team. Since 2000, Napoli has retired the number 10 shirt to pay tribute to the "Golden Boy" who brought them two Serie A titles and a UEFA Cup in 7 years of service. However, Birmingham City did the same with a very young player who had played less than 50 matches in the second division of England.
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