Real Madrid and England superstar Jude Bellingham has ranked as the second most valuable player in the world, totalling £100million higher than any current Liverpool player, leaving further questions to be asked over why the Reds did not splash the cash this summer to land their long-standing target.
The Football Observatory value Bellingham at a whopping €200million, below only Erling Haaland and teammate Vinicius Junior who are valued at €250million.
Joint with the 20-year-old on the same value is Rodrygo, Bukayo Saka and Kylian Mbappe. The youngster is in stellar company.
Labelled ‘world-class’ by former teammate Jadon Sancho three years ago, the Birmingham boy has gone from strength to strength and landed at Real Madrid this summer for an initial fee of £88.5million.
It was no secret that Liverpool were huge admirers of the young Englishman, and had been for some time, so their unwillingness to cough up and pay the amount wanted by Borussia Dortmund is somewhat baffling.
Of course, Bellingham’s wages were also a sticking point, but after his majorly impressive start to life with Los Blancos it would be hard to argue against the deal being more than worth it for the Reds no matter the price.
After all, the midfielder is now making that price tag look a bargain. In four appearances for Carlo Ancelotti’s side, he has scored five times and registered one assist and is already becoming idolised by the Madridistas.
For context, Liverpool submitted a £111million British record transfer bid for Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moises Caicedo during the same transfer window that they were reluctant to pay a lesser fee for the Birmingham City youth prospect.
The Bellingham blues
Bellingham seemingly has the world at his feet, undoubtedly one of the world’s top talents and still so young, his ceiling is sky high and the general consensus is that the Reds will regret letting this one slip by in the years to come even more so than they do now.
Jurgen Klopp did add midfield reinforcements in the form of Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch who are all tipped to shine at Anfield this season, however, a generational talent such as Bellingham does not come along too often.
Here is to hoping that we see the youngster on Merseyside in the future, but for now he is Real Madrid’s property and they are enjoying every second if it.
