Ben Pawlowski
ENGLAND star Jude Bellingham showed off his language skills by speaking near-perfect Spanish at Real Madrid’s La Liga trophy parade in front of his teammates and thousands of fans.
Bellingham, 20, thanked fans for their support and issued a rallying cry ahead of their Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund on June 1 at Wembley Stadium.
The Birmingham-born midfielder, who has enjoyed a spectacular debut season at the Estadio Bernabeu with 22 goals in all competitions, was speaking at a trophy parade in Spain’s capital as the side showed off the La Liga and Spanish Super Cup titles.
With thousands of supporters chanting ‘Jude! Jude! Jude!’ in the capital’s Plaza de Cibeles, Bellingham picked up the mic and told the fans in Spanish: “Thank you very much for your support and love this season. We have one more big game at Wembley. We are going to win. Hala Madrid!”.
The Englishman then proceeded to spread his arms out wide in a celebration with which he has become synonymous as the crowd and his teammates applauded.
In December last year, Bellingham admitted he was finding learning the language ‘hard’ but promised ‘maximum commitment, guaranteed’ – on the evidence of his near-faultless Spanish, he has stuck to his word.
In a separate interview conducted in Spanish aboard the open-top bus, Bellingham told a reporter he was ‘very happy’, before saying Vinicius Jr, his Real Madrid teammate with whom he was standing, ‘is the best player in the world’.
