Pep Clotet, head coach of Torpedo Moscow, has spoken to El Larguero about Jude Bellingham and his first few months at Real Madrid.
The Spanish coach knows the English player very well, having coached him when he was a youngster at Championship club Birmingham City. Under Clotet, Bellingham made the leap to the first team at the English club, where Wayne Rooney is now in charge.
“Did I picture Bellingham’s progress? I was surprised that he started so well,” Clotet said as quoted by AS.
“When I met him he was very young, he was only 16 years old. I remember we were watching a Champions League game together. We were talking about Barcelona and Madrid. I thought he would talk to me more about Barcelona, as we had never talked about that. But he already had it in his head that the team he liked was Madrid. He told me they were classy players.
“It must have been February or March 2020, the year of the pandemic. We were discussing Champions League football and he took a big view on Madrid. That’s why I’m really excited to see that same spirit in him that I saw him having for us.”
Kieran Quaile | GSFN
