The forging of King Jude and the "seriousness" of Mark and Denise: "Their success is that of the Bellingham family"

Who was going to tell the hundreds of Real Madrid fans who occupied the visiting stands of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on May 17 that that song that accompanied one of Real Madrid's worst nights in recent years was going to be their great joy in 2023?. The Hey Jude that sounded on the citizen stage before and after the painful 4-0 that ended the white team's continental season now also does so at the end of each Madrid match.. It is the stands' way of thanking the appearance and explosion of Jude Bellingham (Stourbridge, Birmingham, 2003), top scorer in LaLiga and the Champions League and author of a double that marked another victory for Madrid in the classic.

That “na na na nananana, nannana, hey Jude” sounded again on Saturday in Montjuic, the scene of confirmation, in case it was needed, that this 20-year-old Englishman was not only born to play for Madrid, but that he has the team on his shoulders. Flag of the club on and off the field at a football and media level, winner of the Golden Boy this Monday and leader of a generation that has already taken possession of Valdebebas. Everyone follows him and he is the center of the young gang formed by Camavinga (20 years old), Tchouaméni (23), Rodrygo (22), Vinicius (23) or Fede Valverde (25). That's how forceful his landing has been.

Physical and mental “maturity”

«He has fallen on his feet. He is a polite and simple boy in the locker room, he is passionate about learning Spanish and loves the city of Madrid,” they reflect from the white team's sports city.. The getaway that the youngest core of the squad made to Saint-Tropez at the end of August is part of that union. After a generation in which Cristiano, Benzema and Gareth Bale understood each other more on than off the field, now that “chemistry” that they talk about at the club begins far from the pitch. They spend the afternoons together at each other's houses or go out to dinner in the capital's fashionable places, something that has further accelerated the adaptation of a Bellingham that “seems like it has been here for many years,” they say.

Beyond the goals, there is a word that always comes to light when asking about Bellingham in Valdebebas: “Maturity”. Physical and mental maturity. He has been one of the players who has surprised Antonio Pintus the most in the preseason and during this beginning of the season he has played almost everything, he has only rested against Las Palmas. And to explain how the head of an English teenager stays in its place after leaving the family home at 17 and succeeding in Madrid at 20, you have to look at his family.

Pep Clotet: “Mentality, conviction…”

“Jude's success is the success of the Bellingham family,” Pep Clotet, the Spanish coach who made Bellingham's debut with the Birmingham City first team, explains to EL MUNDO on August 6, 2019.. I was just 16 years old. «His success is a teamwork between him and his parents. And there is an example that sums it up. In January 2020, the club set up a meeting with Liverpool, who were interested in him, and they told him that he must go to Anfield to meet with them.. And the boy says no, that he has training that day and that he is not going to leave his teammates.. What will he do when he has a day off?. “That already tells you how clear he was, that his head was in his club and the seriousness of his surroundings,” recalls Clotet, who left Birmingham in 2020 and has spent time at Brescia, SPAL and Torpedo Moscow.

That August 6, 2019, the takeoff of a rocket began and only four years later it landed in Madrid. One of the great explosions in the history of world football. «When he started coaching with us in the preseason, I removed all my doubts. I saw determination, mentality, talent and conviction. And a great ability so that the error did not weigh on him, but rather he corrected it super quickly. He analyzed it himself. He looked like he was 30 years old,” admits Clotet, who remembers a phrase from Jude himself on the day of his debut: “I told him what I expected from him and I saw in his eyes that he had prepared his whole life for that. He told me: 'Don't worry, this is going to turn out well.'”

In the year of the pandemic, Bellingham scored four goals and was indisputable in a Birmingham team that avoided relegation in the Championship, the second division of English football. The whole country loved him. Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea… But he and his parents were clear about their destiny. He wasn't going to go to such a big club.. I needed an intermediate step.

And Mark Bellingham, a former West Midlands police sergeant and record-breaking striker in English amateur football, and Denise, his mother, a worker in the human resources department of a company, have always carefully managed their son's career.. «That summer of 2020, his parents, Jude, his brother Jobe and I met for dinner. I didn't ask them about their next destination, but there was no need.. They told me that they wanted a club where they continued to progress, not a very big club with players ahead of them.. I didn't even ask, but I knew it was Dortmund, it was the natural step. Just like this summer, the natural step was a big team in which to win,” reflects Clotet.

Denise to Dortmund, Mark in England

Denise went to Dortmund with Jude and Mark stayed in England with Jobe, who at 18 years old already plays for Sunderland in the Championship. His mother became the greatest support for the eldest Bellingham in his adaptation to Germany. «The role it is playing is enormous. I think at the moment it's probably the most important, even more than my coaches, to be honest,” Jude admitted during the last World Cup.

His parents and brother are his core and until now they have avoided relationships with a large representation agency. They hire legal, marketing, personal training experts or even a coach occasionally, such as when they signed for Madrid, but the weight of the conversations is always carried by Mark and Denise.

As with his move to Dortmund, his mother came with him to Madrid and his father stayed on the islands with Jobe. Nothing goes wrong in the Bellingham family since their childhood in Birmingham, the city, according to data, luckiest in the English Lottery. They have won 205 jackpots in the last 29 years. An industrial and working city that has marked the character of the Bellinghams. “It is a family with a very well-furnished head,” they praise in Madrid.

In the Madrid board there were never any steps back with his signing. José Ángel Sánchez, general director of the club, and Juni Calafat, head of scouting, have been the men on the ground to insist to Mark and Denise how positive his arrival in Madrid would be for Jude's career.. Ancelotti changed the scheme to enhance his virtues and the rest is history. «He has the English mentality of reaching the goal. That doesn't happen so much in Spain.. That's why it's surprising”, explains Clotet. «He is the King of Madrid. Superstar,” answers McManaman, another successful Englishman. «He feels like the happiest boy in the world in Madrid. There is no bigger secret,” they conclude in the club.