‘Jude Bellingham BETTER than Zinedine Zidane’

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 18 Jun 2023 20:13 BST
• 3 min read

Former Aston Villa and Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino has sensationally claimed that Jude Bellingham can become a better player than Real Madrid and France legend Zinedine Zidane.

This week Bellingham completed his club record transfer to Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund for a price of around €134m.

This fee makes Bellingham the fourth most expensive transfer in football history.

READ MORE: Premier League 2023/24 summer transfers: All the Done Deals

Bellingham has enjoyed a fantastic start to his career and at the age of 19 is tipped for a massive future.

But the pressure will also be on Bellingham.

He is now playing for the most successful club in football, a club that has contained some of the greatest players to ever play the game.

READ MORE: From Pogba to Mudryk – the €100m warning to Bellingham

One of these, of course, is Zidane. The Frenchman donned the Blancos shirt from 2001 to 2006 after moving from Juventus for a then-world record fee.

Zidane enjoyed five fantastic years at Madrid, memorably scoring a wonder-goal to win the 2002 Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen.

He is also a France legend after leading Les Bleus to back-to-back World Cup and European Championship titles, scoring twice in the 1998 World Cup final against Brazil.

But, incredibly, ex-Ireland attacker Cascarino believes Bellingham can surpass Zidane in a Madrid shirt.

What did Cascarino say about Bellingham?

"It's how he fits into that Real Madrid team,” Cascarino said on TalkSport.

"Can he get deciding, winning goals? I just think he's capable of everything from what I've watched of him.

"When you look at Zidane, Zidane was 6ft 1 and he was quick, but he didn't look blisteringly, eye-catchingly quick.

"Bellingham's like that. He's got a long stride and, once he gets going, he's moving past people. Declan Rice does that, he can get past people with just a turn of foot.

"I think that's the quality Zidane had. Is Bellingham as technically gifted as Zidane? No. But can he improve and become an even better player? Of course he can."

"One thing he's got over Zidane is he's way more versatile. Zidane was normally stuck more on the left wasn't he as a midfielder and sometimes in a No.10 role.

"There are some similarities there because of their height, their upper body strength and the way they play the game.

"Could Bellingham become far better in the air for his size? Zidane got goals, and he did it in World Cup finals, with his head. Can [Bellingham] become better aerially?

"Can he get into the 18-yard box and get his head on a cross and show his heading ability as well?"

Cascarino scored 248 club goals in his career, as well as 19 goals for the Ireland national team.

He also played for Crockenhill, Gillingham, Milwall, Celtic, Marseille, Nancy and Red Star 93.