Jude Bellingham has made the move to Real Madrid look easy – but surviving and thriving at the world’s biggest football club takes a massive effort, says Steve McManaman
When Real Madrid came calling for me, it was January 1999 and they had just won the Intercontinental Cup. That white shirt, the Puskases, the Di Stefanos… I had the chance to join the best team in the world, and I felt I had to give it a go.
Leaving Liverpool wasn’t an easy decision. I was playing every week and playing well. I knew I had a choice to make: either commit my future to Liverpool and see out my career there, or make the jump somewhere new. Liverpool and Real Madrid are quite similar in how they operate.
They have great history, beautiful stadiums, and lots of pressure to be successful every year. The big change was going from Liverpool, a city of 450,000, to a Spanish-speaking capital city.
Nowadays clubs do everything to help the transition, but back then things were different. The club did nothing to help me acclimatise. I went out there for a few days before pre-season with my wife and looked at about 20 houses because I didn’t want to live in a hotel for too long.
I think if you live in a hotel for any amount of time – even if it’s only a month or two – you’ll go stir crazy. I had my own house from the start, which really helped, but I did that off my own back. Madrid is like Liverpool in that they have an attitude of: “We’ve signed you because you’re the best – just get on with it.”
There was a general feeling of suspicion. People were questioning decisions and wondering if the changes were going to work.
I arrived in a transitional period. There was a clear-out of half a dozen big characters in the dressing room. Christian Panucci went, Davor Suker went, Predrag Mijatovic went.
Lots of new players arrived and there was a general feeling of suspicion. People were questioning decisions and wondering if the changes were going to work.
The first few weeks on pre-season tour, whenever the Spanish-speaking lads invited me out for a drink I always said yes. I just sat with them even though I couldn’t understand. Every time they looked at me, I would smile or put my thumbs up – I had to show them I wanted to be there.
Once the football started, I knew everything was going to be all right. I had a good start and scored in my first three games.
It was a strange season for us. We had to go to Brazil for the Club World Cup in January 2000. When we came back, we had about five games in hand, which we had to play in a short space of time. That’s when it clicked and we became a proper football team.
We had a few injuries and stumbled into playing three at the back. Once the Champions League resumed, we looked really strong. We played Valencia in the final and they were favourites for it, having finished higher than us in La Liga that year. But we came back a different side after Brazil and we won really easily.
It was brilliant to score in a Champions League final, but the best thing about that goal was that it put us 2-0 up and you just saw their heads go. 1-0 was hard enough for them, but at 2-0 they were done, and we quickly got the third so we could enjoy it.
You could hear the olés ringing around. To lift that trophy just ten months after joining was immense. That’s what Real Madrid do – it’s all about the Champions League.
Real Madrid also never stand still, and that summer there was more change. Club president Lorenzo Sanz forced an election early because he had won the Champions League twice in three years – but Florentino Perez came in and won.
Perez brought in Luis Figo – the first Galactico of the new era – and once the story came back into the English press there was a bit of a miscommunication. No one ever said they wanted me to leave.
Of course, Luis came in and was a big-money transfer, so there was a lot of talk – I was reading different things every week. But the manager came to me and said: “Don’t worry you’re not going anywhere,” and Perez never once said we want to sell you.
Maybe they were subconsciously trying to make it difficult for me so I would leave of my own accord, but that never really occurred to me.
That’s what Real Madrid do – it’s all about the Champions League.
The media is more intense in Spain: every day Marca and AS write ten pages of stories about Real Madrid. Sometimes they’re just filling column inches. I think that’s where the perception comes from that Gareth Bale, for example, wasn’t well thought of there.
I don’t think Gareth was forthcoming in talking to them, so they just took the opportunity to have a go. He was in Madrid for a long time, and it was just in the last few years when things started to get more difficult.
Then you had that “Golf, Wales, Madrid” picture, which obviously the fans didn’t like, and the press went to town on him from there.
If you lived in Madrid, the story was different. He was well liked by his teammates and by the fans. He probably should have done an interview on English TV and said, “I love it here, I love the fans,” and put everything to bed. But the fact that he didn’t meant the story just grew arms and legs.
The other side of playing abroad is off the pitch. It’s not just you – your wife has to be happy; your children have to be happy. For Michael Owen, I think it didn’t work out in Madrid because his family found it tough. They were living in a hotel and they had young children.
I went over to see him there and he was well liked and scoring plenty of goals. It was just right place wrong time. He wasn’t going to stay there without his wife and kids.
Jude Bellingham has made that transition look seamless. I think the fact that he’s lived in Dortmund has massively helped. I interviewed him a couple of days ago and he’s a super player, but what a man he is as well.
It’s the way he holds himself, the way he speaks. He’s still humble even though he’s a superstar already – he’s got no ego, which is essential when walking into that Madrid dressing room.
It’s the way he holds himself, the way he speaks. He’s still humble even though he’s a superstar already – he’s got no ego…
Every team in England wanted him at 16, so the fact that he chose Dortmund ahead of all the biggest English clubs showed that he could see the bigger picture. He wanted to go somewhere where he knew he would play and come back a better player.
It’s a new generation now with Vini Jr, Rodrygo and now Kylian Mbappé. Everybody who’s anybody wants to play there.
When you look at things from an English perspective and who could be next to make the trip over to Madrid, I think Trent Alexander-Arnold fits the Galactico profile.
He has the perfect attitude to thrive in that high-intensity environment. Coming into the last year of his contract, he has a call to make.
As a Liverpool fan, I hope he stays, but it’s up to the club to make him an offer he can’t refuse. If it gets to January and they haven’t done that, then someone else will. He’ll have the pick of any team in Europe, and Real Madrid will be one of them.
As told to Lola Katz Roberts.
