Real Madrid: Exciting young players to watch out for at the World Cup
By Sahel Kazi
2. Jude Bellingham & Declan Rice (England)
“The $300 million midfield duo” as English pundits and fans are starting to call it. Bellingham and Rice have both been valued very highly by their respective clubs but these are two names likely to come up in the Real Madrid conversation time and again.
This is the tournament to explode at for Bellingham, who’s proven how good he is on the European stage already. His recent performances versus Manchester City in the Champions League caught the eye and it is clear that he is a man for the big occasion. The price tags will of course always seem extravagant but the Englishman is a brilliant player regardless.
It’s come of as little surprise the way he’s constantly been compared to Jamal Musiala who plays at his rival club, Bayern Munich, and has enjoyed a similar meteoric rise to the top.
As far as English midfielders in the Premier League go, Declan Rice continues to be a standard bearer of sorts. He’s a complete footballer and an exceptional vocal and exemplary leader on the pitch to go with it. It is for those reasons that he’s been rated so highly by English football enthusiasts and managers alike ever since debuting at the age of 17.
Football-wise, Rice is the definition of dynamism. His ball control and vision is like that of any top Premier League footballer these days but he’s shown multiple times in the past, how he’s more than capable of putting in a shift in a deeper role wearing that England shirt. At 23 years of age, the West Ham United captain isn’t exactly the youngest midfielder around but he is at the right stage of his career, to take the next step forward. He definitely looks like a player Real Madrid should look at as a candidate to replace some of the current veterans in the squad, in the near future.
Both Bellingham and Rice started in England’s World Cup opener against Iran, and played their part in a dominant 6-2 win for the Three Lions.