In the summer of 2019, Paco Herrera began attending the U-21 team’s games during the preseason, to try to alleviate the shortcomings of Birmingham City, a club without excessive budget, with kids from the quarry. There, he saw a recently turned 16-year-old midfielder stand out from the rest. “In the second game all my doubts were removed,” said the veteran Catalan coach. “I talked to (Pep) Clotet (Birmingham coach) and I told him “look, there are two or three boys who are good, but there is one who is 16 years old who is totally different.”
The 16-year-old boy, whose self-confidence and scoring ability are outstanding Jude Bellingham. “From the first moment it caught my attention,” Herrera, then Clotet’s assistant and now enjoying his retirement in Badajoz, the city where he cut his teeth as a soccer player 50 years ago , the commemoration for EFE.
“We’re starting the summer friendlies, so we’ve brought those three guys up and there’s been two with stuff, which is great, but Jude’s been breaking it in the preseason. In every preseason game it’s been one or two goals. It’s been a thing you said “How is this possible? At his age, self-confidence…”.
The Catalan coach also showed himself in the same line. pep Clotet (47 years old)pointing out that it was initially decided that he would play in the Under-21 team and in the summer of 2019 there was a place for him in the squad. “We decided to go with everyone and put him with the elders, where he’s already made tremendous strides,” said the man who made his Bellingham debut in professional football.
“From then on, he was not another member of the squad, when the league started.remained the same, scoring goals and making differences. What’s more, he did it in a league as competitive as the English,” Herrera replied.
Bellingham being ahead of Birmingham is unprecedented. In August 2019, in the first round of the League Cup, he became the youngest debutant in the club’s history, aged 16 years and 38 days, breaking a record dating back 50 years. A few weeks later, he made his debut in the Championship and at the end of August he scored his first goal, becoming the youngest scorer in the history of the ‘Blues’.
“I’ve gotten used to it and I really like seeing young kids who have something different. It happened to me with Oscar de Paula in his time, as a youth from Badajoz. It happened to me as well Iago Aspas in Celtic. This is that case, something you see that says “this kid handles himself differently.” The moment he caught the ball he saw what he had to do. The controls, their movements… This is from a top player. Her age doesn’t matter to her. All the little details that tell you something is different,” Herrera admitted.
In the 2019–2020 season, the only one he played for Birmingham, he scored four goals in 44 games and was selected as the best young player in the lower categories of English football. His name has already been linked to the best teams in England, with supposed offers from Manchester United and Liverpool. But, as he responded later by refusing to City of Manchester to go to real MadridBellingham prioritized football development and made a move to Germany, to Borussia Dortmund.
“The move to Borussia Dortmund was made and it was made keeping in mind his intention to grow as a footballer, taking the next step. There, Dortmund were able to guarantee him a plan of exposure to the game, a plan to grow as a footballer that Jude found more interesting than going to other teams just to be part of the squad,” explained Clotet .
The 30 million euros spent by the German club, a record for a 17-year-old player, led to Dong Ren to decide to retire the number ’22’ worn by Bellingham, in honor of the potential the Stourbridge-born footballer has.
“I was surprised at first,” Clotet clarified, about a decision that is rarely made in English football, where one of the few examples is the ‘6’ of Bobby Moore at West Ham United. “But I understood it, because I thought what a footballer he could be, not only at the club level, at the national team level and in the future. It surprised many fans, they thought it was exaggerated, but look This is an example of a directional vision. We all know what Jude can be and they aren’t afraid to show it. Now there is no objection to this. This is proof that sometimes only a few people see what something means.
“I’m not surprised because for them a big club coming for a player has never happened to them before. They know how new footballers they are. and they anticipated the future of what would happen,” reflects Herrera.
In Dortmund, the world met present-day Bellingham, a player capable of dominating the midfield, carrying the team on his back and scoring and assisting. In three campaigns, always exceeding 40 games played, Bellingham was chosen as the best debutant of the Bundesliga, a revelation player, was included in two ideal elevens and ended his Westfalen career as the best player in the championship. The 100 million that Madrid deposited for him is just a little.
However, none of this fame and success changed Bellingham. “He is an extraordinary man”said Herrera. “He is a boy who lived for football. I went several times to talk to him and visit his parents, because they had to be warned that he is not a normal player and things can happen. Immediately I realized that in his home we can be calm, In his house there is order, an extraordinary family. “They were very helpful to him in everything.”
“For me Jude is like the Jude I knew, the same footballer, the same person. The same footballer, but improved more, because he grew up, the years passed. He has improved physically, in his ability to influence the team, but for me he was also the man I knew before. Very professional, very mature, you can have total trust in him. A very strong family atmosphere,” Clotet added.
His departure from Real Madrid, In a season in which he scored 23 goals in 41 games, in addition to distributing twelve assists, those who saw him play in the reserve team in the summer of 2019 were not surprised.
“I wasn’t surprised by anything I saw in Jude.. I tried to watch all his games at Real Madrid, to see that development. What I see in Madrid is what I see from a 16-year-old kid in the English league. He did everything naturally. I saw the same person at Real Madrid. I want to watch Madrid so I can continue watching him,” said Herrera, who also taught the English star his first words in Spanish. “I only taught him a few words during training,” Herrera recalled with a laugh.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
