Jude Bellingham has enjoyed a sensational debut season at Real Madrid. He’s already helped them win the La Liga title and is now close to clinching his first UEFA Champions League title too. The Englishman has definitely been worth the £88.5 million spent by Los Blancos to sign him and thrived under the free attacking role in Carlo Ancelotti’s system.
Bellingham has scored 23 goals and provided 12 assists in 40 appearances this season. That includes 19 in his debut La Liga campaign! The 20-year-old is a potential candidate for the 2024 Ballon d’Or award, but will need to win the Champions League and also guide England to Euro 2024 glory to be a frontrunner for it.
The Englishman is deservedly earning heaps of praise from all over But it’s not just his goal-scoring ability or creativity that helps him stand apart. The 20-year-old is the total package, who works his socks off every game and fulfills his defensive requirements expertly. He’s confident and extremely motivated, with much of that motivation coming from within himself.
Bellingham is a model professional who has his own method of pumping himself up before the matches. That includes a very interesting pre-match ‘ritual’ routine that he seems to follow before every game. Pre-match rituals are a part-and-parcel for many top-level footballers. Many like to listen to music to calm themselves before games. There are some strange ones too.
Cristiano Ronaldo has revealed that he loves sleeping with a match ball beside him before matches, pumping himself up to score goals. Wayne Rooney liked eating Coco Pops before games. Cesc Fabregas made it a habit to kiss a ring gifted by his wife four times before entering a pitch. Bellingham has his own ritual that helps him excel on the pitch.
The 20-year-old has made it a habit of always walking on the pitch where he’ll be playing before matches. He also appears to have this fondness for whistling whenever doing this walk. This whistle could perhaps be of the tune of songs he’s listening via his ever-present AirPods to in preparation for matches. A lot of fans have noticed a pattern when it comes to his pre-match ritual, especially with his whistling and walking on the grass.
This is perhaps a way for him to acclimatize himself to the conditions of the place he’s playing in. He takes in the feel of moving around on the ground before the actual match begins. In fact, Bellingham has revealed the reason behind his unique pre-match ritual, explaining: “I like to visualize the game. See the field, the grass, my playing positions… This way I feel calmer, I know where I am going to be on the field. It is something that I have been doing throughout my career and thanks to it I enter the matches without nerves and prepared for everything.
“They (my coaches) taught me this from a very young age and I continue to practice it. It is something that I have been doing throughout my career and thanks to it I enter the matches without nerves and prepared for everything. They taught me this from a very young age and I continue to practice it.”
It appears that the coaches at Birmingham City probably taught Bellingham to do this in an effort to calm himself down and be as stress-free as possible in matches. The Real Madrid star is earning some mockery for how he ‘pouts’ during the whistling, while some fans seem to be super impressed. He’s at least been able to master this interesting ritual to help him produce fantastic performances for Los Blancos.
Bellingham still has a long way to become an actual Real Madrid. But he can take on step forward towards that status by shining in the Champions League final his ex-team Borussia Dortmund and helping Los Blancos win their historic 15th Champions League title.