Yeh some people won’t like it but that goes back to my initial point, some people just don’t like seeing super confident people do well. I don’t think he’s arrogant for what it’s worth, I just think he’s confident but admittedly it’s a fine line. I liked his interview too, so it’s not universal!
Jude Bellingham | Real Madrid player
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Madrid Zone is run by a bellend
Most people didn't have an issue until he was being a cock.
It has nothing to do with his confidence.
Ease up on the Andrew Tate emails mate!
Mad respect for Bellingham for making all the discussion about himself to save Gareth Southgate.
That Southgate still hasn't been fired is on Bellingham alone at this point...
That Southgate still hasn't been fired is on Bellingham alone at this point...
But it is still very much a team sport. Yes to passion. Yes even to some arrogance but that arrogance cannot be unbridled. Even if you are the best player in the world you cannot go around shouting at your teammates because they failed to make the perfect pass you wanted them to make especially when your own passing in a match may not be on point either.
He reminds me a bit of Alexis Sanchez during his 1st season with us. Waving his arms around whenever a teammate did something to disappoint him but then being shit at times himself.
Oh come off it Moses he’s hardly Andrew Tate! If I scored that goal, I’d also be mouthing off! Comes with the territory.
I didn't compare him to Tate. It was your defence of him..
If it was just a childish cockiness after a winning goal then fine, but the gesture to the bench was indefensible which is why you won't even acknowledge that's the issue.
"Oh he's just confident, you have to be, people don't like confidence... Blah blah"
He's also doubled down after the game with his stupid comments.
And the dumb Twitter post. After you make that gesture just put the head down. The whole world saw the goal, have the confidence to let that do your talking. Personally, I think taking to social media to tell everyone that you are great is not all that confident.
If you're going to be that arrogant, at least make it entertaining like Zlatan or Balotelli.
He's 21, and it must be a wild ride he's on, but at some point he needs to stfu and take a breath.
I think he's a super footballer, but it's not all adding up too well. The Dortmund stories, the inability to absorb valid criticism and all this nonsense.
Just stfu for a bit Jude. People will move on if you don't keep fueling it.
I think he's a super footballer, but it's not all adding up too well. The Dortmund stories, the inability to absorb valid criticism and all this nonsense.
Just stfu for a bit Jude. People will move on if you don't keep fueling it.
Yep, don't do the petty stuff.
This made me dislike him. Came across as "How dare you tackle me"
Fair enough he was cool about it afterwards but didn't like his reaction
Fair enough he was cool about it afterwards but didn't like his reaction
Some balls on this kid to come out blaming the media and fans. To be in a team which has played dreadfully throughout the tournament, getting worse with each match and personally disappearing from view for 96 minutes the other night deserves criticism. Between his brilliant equaliser and opening header, he has done nothing but dive around and try to cheat a way through for his side. You cannot play as badly as England have played and not get criticised. It's incredibly small to be upset about this, and it's been led by Gareth Southgate and his 'strange environment' comments. Clapping back at deserved criticism is childish. There is so much to admire about Bellingham, but perhaps what he needs right now is somebody to say the all important four words in his ear, 'don't be a cnut'.
Zlatan yes. Balotelli no, he was an absolute nob.
Bellingham doesn’t have Balotelli’s charm or wit, you can’t learn that.
Balotelli was as talented as Bellingham but he never had the work ethic or the robotic professionalism, and honestly, I doubt he’s losing sleep over it.
He probably consciously or sub consciously choose to have a career at top level football without giving up the best years of his life, and he managed to do just that, whilst winning the biggest trophies and having iconic moments that will pass the test of time.
I seen some people bring up Cantona, Cantona and Bellingham are nothing alike, top level football doesn’t have characters like Cantona anymore, even back then he was unique, sophisticated, incredibly charismatic and he had flaws, which made him likable.
Cantona is closer to peak Conor McGregor, in a sense that it seems like both tapped into some stream of consciousness and everything they’ve done on the pitch or said outside was in tune with the universe, the timing was impeccable for a period of time.
In Cantona’s case, joining Manchester United as a controversial character, guiding the club to its first title in decades, winning a double, kicking a football fan in the chest, getting banned, the seagulls speech, coming back to Old Trafford against Liverpool with the eyes of the football world on him, scoring a penalty, guiding United to another double with the deciding goal in the FA Cup final against the bitter rivals, winning another title, and then he was done.
As for Bellingham, until recently, he was a posh boy to the cameras type, everything he said was completely unnatural for a kid his age, he was too perfect, and no one likes that.
“Perfect people” usually have the biggest skeletons in their closet.
If I had just joined Real fecking Madrid, won the big double in my first season, and scored a bicycle kick in a KO tie for my country with 30 seconds to go I would feel like the king of the world, its totally normal and human.
I just hope for Bellingham that he would have Beckham’s strength to cope with adversary if shit goes down the drain and the media piles on him and he gets thrown under the bus, whether for England or for Madrid.
In general, I feel like footballers these days, at least what, 99% of them? are robots, most may as well have been printed in a lab somewhere, they look the same, they have the same tattoos and the same hair and they act the same, that’s why I will always have time for interesting characters.
Football needs more people like Neal Maupay, who takes the piss and doesn’t take himself seriously, Maupay suggesting a mask of his own face for Mbappe on twitter was class.
Or someone like Jack Grealish, who is a top pro during the season but an old school footballer in the summer, and seems like a genuine down to earth good lad.
Or a total freak like Haaland who eats liver for breakfast, or Thomas Muller who has a genuinely great sense of humor.
A character like Paul Gascoigne would’ve probably been canceled after a couple of months these days and went on to play in Sunday leagues, its a farce.
Balotelli is fecking brilliant and awesome.
I liked your post until you started saying guys like Grealish, Maupay and Balotelli are funny/good lads.
https://www.goal.com/en/news/manche...elps-pupil-confront-bully/blt2d21f618c9c9e65c
As for Maupay, I suppose he’s an acquired taste, I personally like characters like him in real life.
Same goes for Grealish, I think I’m old
enough and have a decent filter for people, and I saw enough small acts of kindness from him and interviews to know he’s alright.
But, to each their own and all that.
And that man who dares name? Albert Einstein.
I'm someone that typically likes on-field arrogance in players. CR, Ibra, Pogba, Totti, Henry have all been some of my favourite players to watch. Jude just comes across as a bit of an idiot.
Any English player who does anything remotely controversial in the slightest is bound to get picked up and create a media storm.
The easiest way to avoid it? Don't do it.
OR perhaps don't make the game of football look so hard that you can't score until the96th minute against a team who you should beat easily.
England have been shocking this tournament, and bar a good finish Bellingham has been pretty average. So England are rightly under a microscope cos they've got the nations back up by being so awful.
Of course it's a minor thing but Bellingham needs to grow up and stop reacting to things and concentrate on his own game. Full of attitude and aggression - but not at the right times.
The easiest way to avoid it? Don't do it.
OR perhaps don't make the game of football look so hard that you can't score until the96th minute against a team who you should beat easily.
England have been shocking this tournament, and bar a good finish Bellingham has been pretty average. So England are rightly under a microscope cos they've got the nations back up by being so awful.
Of course it's a minor thing but Bellingham needs to grow up and stop reacting to things and concentrate on his own game. Full of attitude and aggression - but not at the right times.
Both Black
Well... he was talking about Bellingham, Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo. Not all three are black, so that doesn't work as the common denominatorBoth Black
But what works: All three did want to move to Real Madrid and didn't want to come to/stay in the PL or even United.
Whilst a lot of people don't like Ronaldo and criticise him for his arrogance, he seems to get a lot more 'elite mentality, that's what you need to be the best' grace than the other two. Who just get called arrogant. Is it because of his much greater success to this point? Maybe. But the other two are among the best of the best right now, are 15-20 years younger than Ronaldo, and have already done things that Ronaldo hasn't (cf Mbappe already scoring more goals in the World Cup final than any other player, or JB being deemed the best player in a major league as a teen). If JB and Mbappe continue to be successful, let's see how much 'elite mentality' grace they get in the future......Well... he was talking about Bellingham, Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo. Not all three are black, so that doesn't work as the common denominator
But what works: All three did want to move to Real Madrid and didn't want to come to/stay in the PL or even United.
A bit of arrogance is good. See Vini Jr, for example. It´s a sign of ambition, which is not a bad thing for an elite football player.
I'm right that bellingham's biggest strength seems to be his goal scoring, right?
Balotelli was a laughing stock and Zlatan became a caricature of himself. Hardly something to aspire to.
You'd think that. He could score a hat trick in the first 10 minutes and that'll just leave 80 minutes for people to sit back and focus entirely on how arrogant he looks to them.
Love this
I wasn't a fan of Balotelli going over to the United fans and celebrating in front of us after the FA Cup semi, but I guess I hold grudges for longer than most.
I also thought he was overrated as a footballer. He's only managed a 20+ goal season (all comps) once in his career, at Nice.
I don’t remember him at Nice. Where’s he now?
He plays in Turkey now.
He was an incredible talent, just fell by the wayside a bit. Also, I'd describe him as 'eccentric', rather than arrogant. But then I don't know for sure because I never met the guy a day in my life. It's hilarious (and honestly quite unhealthy) the way people in this forum have developed intense hatreds for public figures that they don't know from Adam. Watching them on TV or reading about them and making judgements re character, personality etc. is not the most accurate barometer. Who people are on the pitch, who they are in front of cameras and/or journalists, who they are in tabloid stories, is not who they really are.
I wouldn't say I held anything resembling an intense hatred towards him (I forgot he existed until he was mentioned on this thread), but I spent a lot of money on that day out at Wembley in 2011 and was gutted when we lost, so to see him walk over to the United fans to goad them a few seconds after the final whistle went, was enough for me to dislike him.
Not talking about you re the hatred, that was directed at others.
It's not even the gesturing to the Slovakian bench, and the general arrogance.
What is more grating is the faux humility on social media, like making that gesture and then saying "nothing but respect to those guys" just shows his immaturity. But he's like 21 so I guess no surprise there.
No problem in being arrogant and confident, but if you're also going to be a nasty cnut then own it, and don't try and be a nice guy online after. So fake.
What is more grating is the faux humility on social media, like making that gesture and then saying "nothing but respect to those guys" just shows his immaturity. But he's like 21 so I guess no surprise there.
No problem in being arrogant and confident, but if you're also going to be a nasty cnut then own it, and don't try and be a nice guy online after. So fake.
Oh he was definitely overrated. He was great at taking penalties and had a more than good shot on him. But the rest of his game was severely lacking and he never really had the tools to become the best striker in the world as people often implied.
Comparisons to Zlatan & Balotelli are silly. At 19 he was selected as Dortmund's 3rd captain in 2022/23 despite not being local. Jude is probably the only teenager who has captained a Champions League team outside his own country, in the Bundesliga and CL. Fabregas captained Arsenal at 21.
Between 17 to 19yo Jude was playing as a CM in the CL with responsibilities to defend, progress the ball, keep possession and his performances as a B2B midfielder were good enough to attract a 100m bid from Madrid. If he was as much of a headcase he simply wouldn't get a sniff of central midfield at 17, he's not a primadonna and one of the few in England's midfield who presses high to regain possession and is skilled at ballwinning and interceptions. Young flashy wingers and forwards like Vini, Zlatan, Balotelli would simply see all that as too much responsibility.
The main thing that's changed since his Madrid move is that he goes down a lot, probably because he's playing as a CAM with goalscoring duties and wants freekicks and pens. He's adapted so well and quickly to his new RM role (a defensive ballwinning CAM if it makes sense, it's why Madrid conceded very little) such that Madrid did a double despite losing key players to injury and not buying a striker. Hence even if his demeanor is overbearing there's a high chance he'll be a future England captain.
Between 17 to 19yo Jude was playing as a CM in the CL with responsibilities to defend, progress the ball, keep possession and his performances as a B2B midfielder were good enough to attract a 100m bid from Madrid. If he was as much of a headcase he simply wouldn't get a sniff of central midfield at 17, he's not a primadonna and one of the few in England's midfield who presses high to regain possession and is skilled at ballwinning and interceptions. Young flashy wingers and forwards like Vini, Zlatan, Balotelli would simply see all that as too much responsibility.
The main thing that's changed since his Madrid move is that he goes down a lot, probably because he's playing as a CAM with goalscoring duties and wants freekicks and pens. He's adapted so well and quickly to his new RM role (a defensive ballwinning CAM if it makes sense, it's why Madrid conceded very little) such that Madrid did a double despite losing key players to injury and not buying a striker. Hence even if his demeanor is overbearing there's a high chance he'll be a future England captain.