Immediately after Jude Bellingham arrived at Real Madrid, the club won the Champions League and La Liga, with Jude scoring winners against Barcelona in El Clasico and scoring so much as a No. 10 that he nearly won the Pichichi over legendary striker Robert Lewandowski.
Bizarrely, though, Real Madrid deemphasized their best player even as he continued to shine in a more defensive role, but it looks like the hiring of Jose Mourinho combined with his insane World Cup performances, including historic back to back braces in the knockout stages, have caused a change in tune worldwide on the former Borussia Dortmund hero.
It is quite alarming, though, to look back at how many Real Madrid fans were talking about Bellingham over the last two seasons, especially in the difficult 2025/26 campaign. He got lumped in with other players who were accused of being lazy and had terrible defensive and work rate statistics, in particular Kylian Mbappe, despite being the complete opposite as a player both in Madrid and throughout his career on any team.
Jude Bellingham is far from lazy
As Real Madrid get more popular and sign more Galactic players, there are more voices in the fan base who are not actually reflective of the guard of fans who have been here for a while, and they are instead in camps defending specific players. Lazy narratives ensue, and the laziest is that, well, Jude Bellingham is lazy.
But anyone who watched the World Cup, Jude at Dortmund, or, obviously, Jude in Madrid these last three seasons can tell that he is the best and most active ball winner in the team - and certainly nothing close to a lazy person.
Bellingham is as obsessed with winning as Jose Mourinho, and he will go to any lengths to win. Even in the game in which he scored the winning brace for England vs. Mexico at the Azteca, he saved a goal with a block in the six yard box. Throughout the World Cup, Bellingham didn't just score, but he defended and started attacks at an elite level, too.
So it has been infuriating to see many Real Madrid fans lump Jude Bellingham in the discussion of players at the club being insubordinate or lazy when nothing could be further from the truth. Mourinho certainly isn't going to fall for these narratives, as he and Jude are cut from the same cloth. And based on how Mou has praised him as an analyst in the past, he already recognizes that.
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