How Jude Bellingham became the world’s best player overnight

Nobody thought when Jude Bellingham joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2023 that he would become the best player in the world overnight.

But he did. And this is how it happened. This is where Jude Bellingham came from. As of the first weekend in November 2023, Bellingham had scored 10 goals from 11 La Liga appearances, and three from three starts in the Champions League. He is the club’s leading scorer in both competitions, by far, and has instantly become their defining factor. No game exemplified that more than the El Clasico at the end of October, when Real came from behind to beat Barcelona. Bellingham’s first goal was ripped in from thirty yards. His second was prodded home from close range. A 1-0 deficit became a 2-1 win at his hands, in what was the crowning moment of his career to-date.

But one of the reasons why Bellingham’s emergence has been so startling is because he is being he seems to be a different player to the one who left Borussia Dortmund, in role and in effect. And that’s an interesting dynamic. He first moved to Germany in 2020 at 17, during a period when Dortmund were in a state of change. In his first season, he most often played alongside Thomas Delaney as part of a midfield two, with Marco Reus, Giovanni Reyna, and Jadon Sancho ahead of him, and Erling Haaland up front. During his second, with Sancho sold, Julian Brandt and Thorgan Hazard were usually selected in the wide positions ahead of him in 4-2-3-1, with Mahmoud Dahoud or Axel Witsel next to him in deep midfield. By his third and final year, Erling Haaland was gone, replaced by Sebastien Haller, and players like Karim Adeyemi and Donyell Malen were occupying the wide attacking roles, with Bellingham either pushed forward into more of a No.10 role, or alongside defensively minded holding players like Emre Can or Salih Ozcan. Bellingham was continuously forging new relationships on the pitch and adapting to the traits of new teammates. Because Dortmund’s midfield was often in flux, Bellingham often also needed to be a more generalized player. Partly because he was young and prone to lapses in positional discipline and a tendency to try to do too much. But because Dortmund were no longer the system-led side they had been under Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, too, and depended on inspiration from their individual players. Bellingham was often a positive influence wherever he played and so the tendency was for him to roam, and to influence the game from many different areas. It showed his range, but it diluted his effect in any single area.

Complicating the issue was managerial instability. Bellingham was signed to play for Lucien Favre. He was dismissed in December 2020 and replaced by interim Edin Terzic. Marco Rose was then appointed for the following season, but lasted just a single year before Terzic was again appointed, this time on a permanent basis. Bellingham was not always the player he has become, but part of the reason why his evolution has been so startling and so sudden, is because for those three years in the Bundesliga, the change around him made it difficult for him either to be well defined, or to grow into a single role, with performance data charting that specific evolution. In fact, his data from those seasons seems to describe three different players. These three charts from FBref.com show Bellingham’s contribution in his three Bundesliga years relative to other midfielders. Particularly interesting, is the changing nature of his defensive performance and the fluctuation in his areas of influence.

Finally, this chart shows the last 365 days of his career, incorporating his performances at Real Madrid. Two obvious points first. Bellingham is now an older and wiser player. Having also been signed for over €100m, he has also gained a status in the game that he didn’t previously have. The deeper texture to his performance, though, is that he’s occupying a more designated role, as a No.10 ahead of Real Madrid’s three-man midfield of Fede Valverde, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Eduardo Camavinga, and behind Carlo Ancelotti’s two-man attack, of Joselu and Vinicius Jr. He’s become a better player. He’s also playing alongside superior players and in a better side. Most importantly, his talent – really for the first time in his career – is being focused on a very specific area. Bellingham spends far less time in his own half than he ever has. He has more license to get forward, and far fewer responsibilities without the ball.

Among others, some of the interesting data contrasts between this season and last include a jump in Bellingham’s touches in opposition penalty box per 90, from 3.5 to 4.4, an increase in his carries into the penalty box, from 0.80/90 to 0.99/90. And a big spike in his progressive passes received, from 4.65/90 – good enough for the 80th percentile among midfielders – to 5.74/90, in the 97th. That last season in Dortmund saw Bellingham play by far his most attacking role for the club and yet, even so, his profile now is as more of a target for attacking moves than before. It has been a remarkable rise. But it wasn’t so long ago that Bellingham was a figure of fun. When Borussia Dortmund signed him, as a 17-year-old in 2020, Birmingham City – his club since the age of 7 – announced that they would be retiring his number 22 shirt. It made the club and player objects of derision. “The 22 shirt has become synonymous with Jude,” Birmingham wrote in their official statement. “And as such the club have decided it would be fitting to retire this number, to remember one of our own and to inspire others.” Bellingham was one of their own. He had been born in Stourbridge, 20 miles from Birmingham, and there was significance in the number itself. As a youngster, Bellingham had been challenged to become the complete midfielder by one of his first coach. That is: part No.4, part No.8, part No.10. Added together, that made him a No.22, the shirt he would wear at Birmingham, and then later at Dortmund and for England. Three years later, Birmingham’s decision to retire that shirt doesn’t look so ridiculous.