Why Jude Bellingham is Real Madrid’s No.5 after Birmingham City shirt retired

It’s a fairytale of an opportunity for Jude Bellingham as he prepares to play in the Champions League final on Saturday night. And the stars have aligned for the England international. As if they could decide who was involved and where the game would be played.

Current club Real Madrid against former club Borussia Dortmund, which he managed before leaving for the Spanish capital last summer, clashing in England at Wembley Stadium, the home of football. With such a destiny, is anything but true victory possible? Well, we’ll see.

Just for the record, Bellingham also faces the prospect of becoming the second Birmingham City product to lift Europe’s premier football trophy – after the late great Trevor Francis did it last summer. All in all, it’s sure to be an emotional night for the super-talented 20-year-old ahead of his return to Germany with England for EURO 2024 later this month.

Bellingham came through the ranks at the Blues and broke into the first-team set-up under Pep Clotet in 2019. Having just turned 16, he made his debut – becoming the youngest player to represent the Blues to do so – in a defeat in EFL Cup. at Portsmouth. The game itself was insignificant in the grand scheme of Blues history, but for Jude it marked the start of his senior career. The growth so far has been stratospheric.

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Number 22 wasn’t just a shirt randomly assigned to Bellingham. There was a deeper reasoning behind his decision to wear the number. Boasting his ability to play in all three prominent midfield roles – 4, 8 and 10 – Bellingham simply added to those numbers. When Bellingham left for Dortmund in 2020, they managed to select the same number at the Westfalenstadion.

The Blues, although the announcement was met with derision by rival football supporters on social media, decided to retire the departed Bellingham’s 22 shirt. And as the player progresses further and further, what seemed like a risky call at the time slowly seems less and less irrational.

“The club has decided that it would be appropriate to retire this number, to remember one of our own and to inspire others,” a Blues statement said at the time.

Bellingham had to have a rethink when he launched at the Santiago Bernabeu last summer; 22 is not a number that is in demand, but in the Real dressing room it has already been allocated to former Chelsea center half and Germany international Antonio Rudiger. And Rudiger wasn’t about to give up his number for anyone, not even one of the hottest prospects on the planet.

So what do I do? Well, Bellingham grew up watching the best players in Europe. He may have been a little ahead of his time, but he admired the world-class talent of Real ‘Galactico’ Zinedine Zidane – so Bellingham opted for the vacant No.5 shirt.

“There wasn’t much left,” jokes Bellingham as he explains his selection. “It adds a bit of pressure, but I wanted to pay tribute to one of my idols.”

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