A new report in Spain has branded Jude Bellingham as the ‘big loser’ of Kylian Mbappé’s arrival at Real Madrid.
Following his £113m move to Madrid in June 2023, Bellingham took center stage in his first season, scoring 23 goals to help his team win LaLiga and the Champions League.
But he has not yet achieved his goal in 2024-25, and has now been ‘displaced’ as Madrid’s main man, according to AS.
AS believe Mbappe is now seen as the star of the show after finally securing his dream move to Madrid, with Carlo Ancelotti forced to modify his tactics to suit the Frenchman and Vinicius Jr, who have scored 16 goals between them.
This has led to a change in role for Bellingham, who thrived as a number 10 and even a false nine last season, but is now playing deeper down the field.
Jude Bellingham has had a disappointing start to the season at Real Madrid
The Spanish press sees him as the ‘biggest loser’ of Kylian Mbappé’s arrival at Madrid
Mbappé has scored eight goals this season, the same as Vinicius Jr, while Bellingham is yet to score despite contributing a sensational goal tally for Los Blancos last season.
‘Bellingham in the labyrinth’: Spanish media claims that Bellingham has been ‘displaced’ by Mbappé
At this point last season he had scored 13 goals, including two in the comeback against Barcelona.
It didn’t take long for the English star to win over the Madrid fans, who regularly serenaded him with the famous Beatles hit ‘Hey Jude’.
But, after a change of position, he has been unable to rediscover his best form, and that was especially evident in Madrid’s 4-0 loss to Barcelona last Saturday.
The 21-year-old attempted just 17 passes in El Clásico, his lowest number since joining Madrid.
He was regularly forced to drop back to help Lucas Vázquez deal with Raphinha, rather than making a decisive contribution in the final third of the pitch.
Ancelotti has defended Bellingham, acknowledging how the midfielder has had to sacrifice parts of his game for the benefit of the team.
“We are satisfied with his work because he does a lot on the pitch,” Ancelotti said recently. “He competes a lot, he sacrifices… He hasn’t scored the goals of last year, but the surprise is not this year, but the ones he scored last year.”
But Bellingham is not having the same impact on the games, and Madrid has not been able to reach its maximum level either.
Bellingham struggled in El Clásico as Barcelona claimed big win at Bernabéu
Carlo Ancelotti has defended Bellingham, but it is clear that he is no longer Madrid’s main man
They are already six points behind Barcelona in LaLiga and were beaten by Lille in the Champions League last month.
Bellingham’s fall comes after he enjoyed a brilliant 12 months and finished third in the Ballon d’Or rankings earlier this week behind Rodri and Vinicius Jr.
But the last few days have also shown that he no longer has the same star power as before at Madrid.
Madrid chose to boycott the Ballon d’Or award after discovering that Vinicius Jr was not going to win the main prize.
A statement from the club said: “If the award criteria do not proclaim Vinicius the winner, those same criteria must proclaim Carvajal the winner. Since this has not been the case, it is evident that the Ballon d’Or and UEFA do not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where they are not respected.
The boycott decision was made to support Vinicius Jr and Madrid’s statement even mentioned Dani Carvajal as a potential winner of the award, despite the winger finishing fourth behind Bellingham.
Real Madrid boycotted the Ballon d’Or award ceremony to show its support for runner-up Vinicius Jr.
The Spanish giants were furious that Rodri received the award before Vinicius Jr, but made no mention of feeling sympathy for Bellingham, who finished third in the standings.
Madrid’s statement made reference to the fact that Dani Carvajal could also have been a worthy winner, but not Bellingham, which left the Englishman uncomfortable staying in the top three.
Curiously, there was no mention of Bellingham, who was uncomfortable with the entire episode.
Several Madrid players also posted support for Vinicius Jr on social media, but Bellingham was not one of them.
He may feel he should have been a bigger part of the conversation this week, rather than Vinicius Jr taking all the attention.
But their drop in form in recent months means Bellingham may remain on the outside looking in for some time unless they can find a way to rediscover that magic touch that lit up the Bernabeu last season.
