Carlo Ancelotti described Jude Bellingham as a “gift for football” after the England midfielder scored again in Real Madrid’s 4-2 Champions League win over Napoli.
Bellingham, who joined Madrid over the summer from Borussia Dortmund, has now got 15 goals in 16 games with his second-half header helping Ancelotti’s men guarantee top spot in Group C.
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“It looked like he was very tired in the middle of the second half,” Ancelotti said.
“He took 10 minutes to recover and then in the last 15 minutes he made the difference to help us win. It’s surprising. I don’t think anybody could have imagined his adaptation to this style of football, to this club.
“He surprises every day, in every game. Not just us, he’s surprising everybody. [Bellingham] is a gift for football. His coach and his team-mates are delighted with him, and the fans are delighted with him, but everybody is delighted to see a player with this potential and this positive image.”
Bellingham’s impact at Madrid has inevitably drawn comparisons with the great Zinedine Zidane, who patrolled the midfield at the Bernabeu during the Galacticos era.
And Ancelotti admitted the 20-year-old does possess attributes the France star, who was watching on last night, didn’t.
He added: “It’s difficult to compare two different generations.
“What I see is [Bellingham’s] ability to get into the box. Zidane didn’t have that. And the individual quality which Zidane had, Bellingham doesn’t have.
“But that’s modern football. Modern football requires physical players like Bellingham, who can cover a lot of the pitch quickly.”
Ancelotti still found areas of improvement for Bellingham to work on, though.
“Bellingham is a young, serious professional,” Ancelotti said. “He’s adapted well to the dressing room. He has to improve his Spanish. As I’ve said many times, nobody is perfect!”
