Jude Bellingham has set his sights on sitting alongside the greats of Real Madrid’s history following his dream move to the Spanish giants.
Bellingham sealed a €103 million (£88.5m) transfer to the Bernabeu from Borussia Dortmund last month, cementing his position as one of the hottest young talents in Europe.
The 20-year-old is aware of the list of stars that have pulled on the famous white shirt over the years, previously citing Zinedine Zidane as a role model, but is targeting a long and successful career of his own. “That is the motivation for the move in the first place, I want to be at a club that is going to be competing for titles and I want to try and help the team and club be as brilliant as it has been for all of time really,” he told the PA news agency. “Now is my chance to be part of that history and that goes hand in hand because I know the club wants to win and I want to win so hopefully it will happen. “It grabs you on its own, the size of the club is already surreal when you think about it, but when you add into that the project they have got in place, it was really important I made this step because it is just the place to be for me.” For most, the prospect of joining Real Madrid in a big-money move at such a young age would be daunting, but Bellingham’s journey has stood him in good stead.