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Jude Bellingham is somehow still only 20 despite his stratospheric rise in the game – but he has already reportedly earmarked the player that will go on to bigger and better things than himself.
After emerging onto the scene as a prodigious talent at Birmingham, Bellingham move to Borussia Dortmund in 2020 where he would play 132 games and crop up on the radar of the biggest team of them all.
Real Madrid ultimately won the race to sign the midfielder for £113million last summer, and since then he has fit like a glove at the Bernabeu, earning the best player gong in LaLiga in his first term.
In such a short space of time he has become second only to Harry Kane in terms of his importance to the England team, and is now considered one of the best in the world in his position.
Yet the midfielder with the world at his feet has already told the creator of the Golden Boy award – which he won in 2023 – that he believes one of his team-mates will in fact exceed his talents.
Jude Bellingham has sky-rocketed to become one of the leading midfielders in the world
He has become arguably the second most important player for England behind Harry Kane
Yet he has pinpointed one Real Madrid starlet that could exceed even his own talents
‘Last December, Jude Bellingham told me that Real Madrid had a fantastic young player who might even be a little better than him – Arda Guler,’ said Massimo Franchi, in an interview.
‘He told me that he shows incredible things in training.’
Guler joined Bellingham in arriving in the Spanish capital last summer, having come through the ranks at Fenerbahce in Turkey, though for the somewhat more modest £17m.
There, he was thought of as one of the most promising talents to come through in a long time.
However in his first season he suffered a number of injury setbacks, the attacking midfielder deprived of regular game time until the end of the campaign.
Yet after only 31 minutes of action in his first five league games he earned a more prominent place in the side, and vindicated Carlo Ancelotti’s call with five goals in his last five appearances in LaLiga.
Despite a stop-start season, that form was enough to earn him a call-up to the Turkey squad for the European Championship, and he has already made his presence felt.
Guler scored an incredible second-half goal to re-establish Turkey’s lead against Georgia
The Real Madrid star’s calm celebration came after his brilliant Euro 2024 goal of the tournament contender
In one of the games of the tournament so far, Turkey beat Georgia 3-1, with Guler scoring a sensational goal in the second half.
Guler had been a constant presence in attack and decided to take the match by the scruff of the neck when he latched onto a pass, dribbled towards goal and bent his effort into the top corner to make it 2-1.
The aptly named ‘Turkish Messi’ looked in disbelief when he ran off to the corner flag celebrating before being mobbed by team-mates as Turkey forced themselves back in front.
His incredible finish from 30 yards out even had Turkey manager Vincenzo Montella jumping for joy as those in the technical area hugged each other in ecstatic celebration.