How Jude Bellingham’s start at Real Madrid compares to David Beckham, Michael Owen and previous English stars

Even for a footballer bubbling with as much self-confidence as Jude Bellingham, his staggering start to life at Real Madrid has been a bit of surprise.

“I believe in myself, but I didn’t know it would be this good,” the 20-year-old Englishman with the world at his feet admitted. “I owe it to the staff and my teammates.”

In the space of ten short games, Bellingham has already racked up a double-digit goal tally for the season – becoming the first Madrid player to achieve such a feat since the club’s all-time leading goalscorer, a certain Cristiano Ronaldo.

If Bellingham comes out of a comparison with one of Madrid’s greatest players of all time favourably, how does he stack up against the handful of Englishmen to have donned the famous all-white kit before him?

The season had barely begun and David Alaba was already speechless. “It’s crazy,” Real Madrid’s centre-back said when the topic of his headline-stealing teammate was raised on the first weekend of September. “I’ve already run out of words.”

Despite being incessantly asked about his marquee acquisition, Carlo Ancelotti still had something to say. “What surprises me is that he is 20 years old,” the Italian admitted after his dazzling display against Napoli. “He looks 30. Obviously, it surprises me. It surprises everybody a little bit.”

It’s not been entirely plain sailing, Bellingham was well-marshalled by Atletico Madrid in a convincing 3-1 defeat, but few could have predicted the seismic impact he’s had in such a small space of time. Although, his past countrymen weren’t too shabby either.

Laurie Cunningham’s West Bromwich Albion manager Ron Atkinson remembers the negotiations with Real Madrid in his front room in 1979. “When they offered £250,000 my dog barked and I told them: ‘Look, even the dog knows that’s not right.'”

The clubs eventually settled on a fee of £950,000, the second largest transfer in history at the time, for a 23-year-old Cunningham in his prime. With five goals in his first six matches, including two on a dream debut against Valencia, he soon proved to be worth every penny.

Isidro, Cunningham’s teammate at the time, said: “Madrid were all fight; Laurie was the fantasy.”

Steve McManaman arrived in a Real Madrid dressing room which his future teammate Raul described as “a cesspit of lies, treachery and whispers”. “I feel sorry for new players like Steve McManaman coming into the club,” Raul continued. “If McManaman thinks he is coming to one of the world’s top clubs then he has made a big mistake.”

Yet, the Liverpool academy graduate “never saw that”. Knowing that he was bound for a free transfer throughout his final season on Merseyside, McManaman arrived in the Spanish capital relatively settled. On his debut, the Scouser came off the bench to tee up an 87th-minute equaliser before scoring on his next two outings. The injuries which derailed his debut campaign only began to surface in October.

Ronaldo put his foot on the ball and watched David Beckham skid past the cones on Madrid’s training pitch before toeing it into an unguarded mini-goal. “Okay,” Beckham remembers thinking during his first training session for the club in 2003, “this is the level that I have to get to.”

Beckham’s debut in the Spanish Super Cup ended within an hour as Carlos Queiroz, Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant during his final season at Manchester United, brought on Claude Makelele.

The French defensive midfielder was sold that summer to fund Beckham’s wages, prompting Zinedine Zidane to famously quip: “Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?”

Yet, Beckham soon recovered to score eight minutes into his La Liga debut for Madrid, sparking a riotous surge up the table for the Galacticos. It wasn’t until a disastrous April and May that Madrid’s title charge stalled.

Michael Owen marked his debut with an assist for Ronaldo but Jose Antonio Camacho, the manager who had never wanted the striker from Liverpool, had already resigned before he’d scored his first goal for the club. No wonder Owen tentatively described the situation as “strange”. “My teammates assured me that it’s not always like this,” Owen fretted. It was a kind lie.

After six blanks on the spin – most of which had come from the bench – Owen finally broke his duck against Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League, prompting a run of four straight matches on the scoresheet.

After some colourful language, Jonathan Woodgate provided the best summary of a debut to forget. “My God,” he said straight after a day that was delayed by 13 months due to injury. “Where do I start? I’m still in shock. An own goal and sent off. What a debut. What a debut! After the own goal and the yellow I was thinking: ‘Jesus Christ, don’t get sent off’, and then I got sent off.”

Woodgate only made another 13 appearances across his entire Madrid career and was voted the worst La Liga signing of the 21st century. Ouch.

READ THE LATEST REAL MADRID NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP

Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
90 Mins