When Real Madrid agreed to pay Borussia Dortmund a transfer fee of up to 103 million euros in exchange for Jude Bellingham’s signature, besides the expectation of a new star in the Santiago Bernabeu sky, there were also doubts about Can this player withstand the pressure from “Los Blancos” fans as well as the team’s leadership?

However, after more than half of the season has passed, no one mentions the fee Real Madrid paid to recruit the English player anymore. Many funny fans even think that president Florentino Perez should pay more money for the Bundesliga representative because that is still too cheap compared to what Jude Bellingham brings.

After 28 matches in all competitions, the midfielder born in 2003 contributed 20 goals and 7 assists. Even though he is a new rookie at Santiago Bernabeu, it is as if he has been playing here for a long time, overshadowing other stars in attack like Vinicius Junior or Rodrygo.

But the fact that Jude Bellingham quickly adapted and created a certain influence in the Real Madrid shirt also brought a headache for coach Carlo Ancelotti. “Los Blancos” shows two clearly different faces with and without the English midfielder on the field.

In the middle of last week, the Royal team visited RB Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League without Jude Bellingham on the registration list, despite being the winning team. Finally, thanks to a beautiful solo play from Brahim Diaz, people can easily see how bad Real Madrid played.

If Marco Rose’s students are luckier and goalkeeper Andriy Lunin does not play so well with 9 saves, it is unknown what will happen. Obviously, although the Italian strategist still speaks tough, the loss of Jude Bellingham makes it more difficult for La Liga representatives than they thought .

“Los Blancos” had a great advantage to win tickets to the next round after the result in Germany, but Jude Bellingham’s injury caused them to expose many problems in attack. The flexibility and chemistry between the players were heavily affected, Real Madrid lacked a name who always knew how to speak up at the right time when the home team was in trouble. 

Gradually eliminating stars like Toni Kroos and Luka Modric is something the Santiago Bernabeu team will have to do sooner or later, because both are no longer young. Coach Carlo Ancelotti was right to put his trust in Jude Bellingham. But he also needs to help “Los Blancos” avoid relying too much on English players.