JUDE BELLINGHAM has tried to deny it.
Before he was even halfway through his debut season at Real Madrid, the young Englishman faced the inevitable question: “Am I a Galactico?"
Bellingham said: "Not a chance.”
But the reality is, if Bellingham and Real Madrid add the Champions League to the Spanish title they have already won, he will have achieved the main thing missing from his application to join the ranks of club greats at the age of 20.
Former Wimbledon and Manchester United forward, Terry Gibson, who is now a pundit for LaLiga TV, said: “He is the king of Madrid.
“The press love him. The supporters sing his name at every game.
"He has been absolutely incredible. I haven’t seen a rookie season at Real Madrid like this before.
“It irritates and baffles me that not everyone in the UK seems to appreciate what he has achieved.”
Playing for Real Madrid comes with demands and pressures that are arguably unique in the world of football, greater even than those at other massive clubs like Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Every move you make, on and off the pitch, is forensically examined, with the Spanish media alone devoting thousands of words and pictures to Real every single day.
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But so far, Bellingham has barely put a foot wrong.
Fans copy his “Belligol” celebration, an arms-outstretched pose compared to the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio. Yet he doesn’t behave like he thinks he is a God.
The Estadio Santiago Bernabeu rings with 80,000 people singing “Hey Jude”, the famous hit by one of England’s greatest ever exports, The Beatles, but Bellingham avoids rock star excess.
He is the complete package, a dream for any manager, even the great Carlo Ancelotti.
Alberto Edjogo-Owono, a pundit for DAZN in Spain, said: “The fans think Bellingham was born to play for Real Madrid.
“He fits the values of the team very well. He’s always trying to improve and to make people feel part of the success of the team.
“He understands the Bernabeu. He understands that people need some rock’n’roll at some points, and calm in others.”
Of course, the bottom line is on-field performance.
In the first half of the season, Bellingham was breaking goalscoring records set by Real Madrid legends like Alfredo Di Stefano and Cristiano Ronaldo as he became the first player in the club’s history to find the net in his first four Champions League games.
His overall quality, beyond the goals, was compared to that of Zinedine Zidane, one of those original Galacticos and whose No5 shirt he confidently inherited after signing at the age of just 19 a year ago.
After one stellar display, Zidane himself said on social media: “The truth is that Bellingham surprises every day.
“Every match. Not only us, but everyone. Bellingham is a gift to football.”
He is also a gift to marketing men inside and outside the club.
Bellingham is becoming a global brand, with a growing list of endorsements from Lucozade to Louis Vuitton.
Comparisons with David Beckham, Real’s most famous English player to date, are inevitable.
When Real went on a pre-season tour of the Far East in 2003 to capitalise on their signing of Beckham, some of his fellow Galacticos were unimpressed by his level of celebrity and what came with it.
Especially when it meant coaches taking them to or from training and other engagements were delayed while the England captain signed autographs for hordes of hysterical fans.
Bellingham shares with Beckham both an appreciation of the value of a good relationship with supporters and the will to put in the hard yards to maintain it.
But if anything, Bellingham’s connection with the Real fans feels more like the one established by Steve McManaman, a similarly down-to-earth Englishman who wore the famous white shirt and remains popular at the club.
So far, too, Bellingham has brought less of the circus that surrounded Beckham and not given anyone a reason to suggest his on-field quality is less important or substantial than his potential commercial value.
Bellingham is learning Spanish and already appears to be more proficient than Gareth Bale was when he left after nine years in 2022.
Edjogo-Owono said: “We’ve seen Bellingham walking in the streets of Madrid and letting people take pictures with him.
“It’s quite different. When Beckham arrived, he was already a rock star, he was like a demigod.
“Bellingham is quieter in how he acts. Bale was quite shy and not as charismatic as Bellingham.
“Bellingham’s popularity is growing and growing. I’m sure he has the charisma to become an icon.”
Right now, though, the most showbiz element to Bellingham’s existence in Madrid is living in the upmarket gated estate of La Finca, home to other big-name footballers and celebrities.
But his housemate is mum Denise and they mostly steer clear of the city’s social hotspots.
Bellingham comes across in interviews as intelligent and self-assured, but not arrogant or smart-alec.
He seems to be the same impressive yet humble young man they remember at Birmingham’s Academy - or as close as he can be, given he’s now a global superstar.
Edjogo-Owono said: “He fits the description of the perfect son-in-law, the kind of guy you would like for your daughter.”
Real supporters loved it when he arrived at the training ground in a taxi at the start of the season.
They love it even more when Denise pulls over the SUV so her son can try to satisfy the demand for selfies.
Everybody wants a piece of him. And he gives it to them with an easy grace and confidence that would be remarkable in anyone, let alone someone of his age.
As Jose del Rio wrote for Marca, Spain’s national daily sports newspaper: “The respect he shows for his profession, for his teammates and for everything that surrounds Real Madrid are lessons that should be taught in all soccer schools.”
But you can only teach people so much and Bellingham has felt like a natural from the moment he pulled on a Real Madrid shirt.
Helping the club lift its favourite trophy for the 15th time would seal the deal for the Galactico who has the world at his feet, yet keeps those feet firmly on the ground.
By Dan King
FROM BRUM to the Ballon d’Or in less than five years.
It sounds far-fetched but that is what Jude Bellingham is on course to do.
Those who observed Bellingham in his days at Birmingham City’s Academy saw a young man with a lot of the attributes that have turned him into a Real Madrid and England superstar.
But even they cannot quite believe how quickly the 20-year-old has done it.
The parent of a current Birmingham youth player said: “I remember when Jude was 15 and I was talking to a former Premier League player I know.
“He told me that Jude was going to be the next big thing, that everybody knew about him and was after him.
“To see someone go from that to where he is now, which is so stratospheric, is amazing.
“It’s not inconceivable that if England win the Euros he could win the Ballon d’Or.
“To go on that journey in five years speaks an awful lot for his ability but also for how he has kept his focus.”
Bellingham was always a hard-worker, on and off the field.
The source said: “On a couple of occasions, I remember us rocking up and seeing him doing finishing sessions with Mike Dodds [a youth coach at Birmingham and now at Sunderland, where he has been caretaker boss three times].
“It was basically him, a defender and a keeper. He was one of the few kids they would have organised that for at the age of 14 or 15.
“But he was also one of the very few first-year scholars that you would see actually carrying around school textbooks.
“I distinctly remember him creating the impression of a boy who was hard-working as a footballer but who also took his education seriously.”
Bellingham’s parents, Denise and Mark, were clearly strong influences on Jude and younger brother Jobe on their road to becoming professional footballers.
The insider said: “His dad in particular is just down to Earth, a really sound bloke, common-sensical, and was desperately keen never to let the kids get above their station.
“It was very noticeable how Jude conducted himself. He was always very level-headed, calm, mature.
“He got into the first team when he was 16. Whenever parents saw him and asked him if their kids could get pictures with him and that sort of stuff, it was never any hassle for him. He was always willing to do it and to chat to the kids.
“He created a really positive impression even as a relatively young kid.”
Bellingham’s maturity expressed itself in other ways. The confidence and quick-wittedness he now shows the world in interviews were there in his mid-teens.
The Academy parent said: “At a time when Jude had become part of the first-team, they were having a recovery session while our kids were playing seven-a-side on the astro.
“As we gathered to collect the boys, the first-team started to leave. The players, like footballers everywhere, had these ridiculous SUV’s and pimped-up cars.
“Jude and Jobe were just sat on a metal fence watching the cars pulling out, with the first-teamers waving at them.
“I said to Jude: ‘Have they not bought you some sort of nice little bike you can ride to training?’
“He just looked at me and said: ‘No, ‘fraid they haven’t, mate. But they do pay my Uber bills.’
“It showed he was capable of having a conversation, getting what you were driving at with the teasing, and coming back with a good line.”
In Bellingham’s early days at Dortmund, all the kids in the Academy received a special something in their end-of-season gift pack - a signed photograph.
The global star has never forgotten where he came from.
The source said: “We’ve seen him a couple of times when we’ve been at games and he’s come back at Christmas.
“There was one game where he and his family were in a box and it was pointed out to them that some of the lads in front were Academy boys.
“They stayed behind afterwards and he made an effort to come out afterwards to speak to them and sign stuff for them.
“He clearly fondly remembers being at Birmingham and knows what the kids are going through.
“They are definitely all following how he and Madrid are getting on.”
And dreaming of going on the same incredible journey.
