A new report in Spain has branded Jude Bellingham the ‘big loser’ from Kylian Mbappe’s arrival at Real Madrid.
Following his £113m move to Madrid in June 2023, Bellingham took centre stage in his first season, scoring 23 goals to help his side win LaLiga and the Champions League.
But he is yet to get off the mark 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 getting his dream move to Madrid, with Carlo Ancelotti forced to tweak his tactics to accommodate the Frenchman and Vinicius Jr, who have scored 16 goals between them.
This has led to a change of role for Bellingham, who thrived as a No10 and even as a false nine last term, but is now playing deeper on the pitch.
By this stage of last season he had scored 13 goals, including two in a comeback win against Barcelona.
The England star took little time in winning the Madrid fans over, who regularly serenaded him with The Beatles’ famous hit ‘Hey Jude’.
But, following a change of position, he has failed to rediscover his best form, and that was particularly apparent in Madrid’s 4-0 defeat by Barcelona last Saturday.
The 21-year-old attempted just 17 passes in El Clasico – his lowest figure since joining Madrid.
He was forced to regularly track back to help Lucas Vazquez 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 himself… He has not scored the goals he did 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 matches, and Madrid have been unable to reach their top level either.
They already trail Barcelona by six points in LaLiga, and were beaten by Lille in the Champions League last month.
Bellingham’s slump comes after he enjoyed a brilliant 12 months, and he finished third in the Ballon d’Or rankings earlier this week behind Rodri and Vinicius Jr.
But the past few days have also shown how he no longer holds the same star power as before at Madrid.
Madrid opted to boycott the Ballon d’Or awards after discovering that Vinicius Jr was not going to win the main prize.
A club statement read: ‘If the criteria of the award do not proclaim Vinicius the winner, those same criteria must proclaim Carvajal the winner. Since this has not been the case, it is obvious that the Ballon d’Or and UEFA do not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where it is 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 full back finishing a place below Bellingham in fourth.
Interestingly, there was no mention of Bellingham, who has been left feeling awkward by the whole episode.
Several Madrid players also posted on social media in support of Vinicius Jr, 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 of the limelight.
But his downturn in form in recent months means that Bellingham may remain on the outside looking in for some time unless he can find a way to rediscover that magic touch that lit up the Bernabeu last season.