Real Madrid’s No 5 won them the Champions League against German opposition on British soil with a magnificent goal. But at Hampden Park, not Wembley; in 2002, not 2024; when it was Zinedine Zidane, not Jude Bellingham. A stunning volley against Bayer Leverkusen can still feel fresh, but it came the year before Bellingham’s birth.
In one respect, Bellingham is Zidane’s successor. In another, Dani Carvajal is. Real can win Champions League finals with extraordinary goals from remarkable players, as Gareth Bale can testify. Or they can win them with defenders applying the final touch from set-pieces, as Sergio Ramos proved. Or, in the 2020s, they can win them with Vinicius Junior strikes. The common denominator, almost the inevitability, is that Real win them. And so, at 20, Jude Bellingham joins Real’s list of Champions League winners. They are less a band than an army, given the size of them.
