Jude Bellingham of Borussia Dortmund has long been compared to Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, and the former Manchester United target could be the ideal Anfield addition in the coming years.
Liverpool has never attempted to replace Steven Gerrard directly. There was never much of a point to it. Simply put, it's extremely difficult to find a midfielder capable of producing otherworldly all-action performances on a weekly basis as their former captain did.
Over Kenny Dalglish, he is arguably the club's greatest player of all time. However, the 'next Gerrard' may be emerging right in front of their eyes in the form of Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham.
Bellingham, still only 17, was named to Gareth Southgate's 26-man England squad for Euro 2020 on Tuesday after a stellar debut season in Germany's Bundesliga.
"Jude is phenomenal," Southgate said. To have a 17-year-old who wants to compete with senior players, not only has the technique, but also the competitiveness and maturity... he's a hugely exciting player.
"We're not just sending him to Euro 2020 for the experience." I don't see anything in his personality that indicates he won't succeed. The things that really stood out for us were his performance levels with Dortmund in the big Champions League games. In those big moments, he stood up. These are the moments when we really evaluate the players."
Bellingham's performance levels are quite ridiculous when compared to Gerrard, who hadn't even made his senior Liverpool debut at the same age. Despite the fact that he can't even drive himself to training, he has nearly 100 senior career appearances for club and country.
A year after moving from Birmingham to Dortmund for £25 million, Transfermarkt has him valued at £50 million, a figure that will only rise in the coming years. More realistically, you might be looking at closer to £80 million to sign him now, rather than in a few years. The Stourbridge-born adolescent will not turn 18 until the 29th of this month.
Despite this, he has already made 46 first-team appearances for Dortmund, in addition to 44 for his previous club Birmingham, with eight goals and seven assists in those 91 games. And he's played three times for England, most recently against Austria on Wednesday night, where he impressed with an assured and intelligent performance.
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It would have been one more if he hadn't been denied an Etihad strike against Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals, though he scored in the second leg, prompting Pep Guardiola to say: "I cannot believe it, maybe he's a liar!" He's a fantastic player for his age, he's so good for a 17-year-old."
City's adversaries Manchester United had been tracking Bellingham for nearly two years prior to his departure from Birmingham and had developed a close relationship with the player's family, believing they had a good chance of a deal. Sir Alex Ferguson is said to have met with them.
Dortmund, on the other hand, offered a destination where he would be guaranteed senior minutes, as evidenced by countryman Jadon Sancho's progression there since a £7 million move from Manchester City in 2017. Sancho is now one of the most exciting players in Europe.
"Borussia Dortmund's track record with young players in recent years is unrivaled in European football." "Weighing all of that, as well as the people we met there, the stadium and fanbase, it made me fall in love with that club as well," Bellingham said after turning down a more lucrative offer from United (though he's still said to be paid a handsome-enough £50,000 per week in Germany).
Bellingham will continue to develop for a few more seasons before moving on to a new adventure, as is Dortmund's custom. Liverpool must position itself at the front of the line for when that time comes, even if it may not be for another two years or so.
Bellingham has stated on numerous occasions that he aspires to be like Gerrard, to whom he would be compared even if he did not have a soft spot for the Liverpudlian. A quick scroll through his Twitter feed, particularly his likes, reveals who his idol is.
Erling Haaland has even dubbed Bellingham "the new Stevie G," and Jermaine Pennant, who played at Birmingham and alongside Gerrard at Liverpool, said of Bellingham before he even moved to Germany: "He reminds me of a young Steven Gerrard." What he is capable of accomplishing in his career is terrifying."
Bellingham is a driving ball-carrying box-to-box central midfielder with plenty of ability on both sides of the ball. He has the energy and aggression of the heart-on-sleeve Scouser, but also the composure and technical guile. Bellingham will go on to play any midfield role he desires, but his best chance is to become a dynamic all-around tour de force like Gerrard.
Bellingham breaks defensive lines for fun and will score plenty of goals in his career, but he is also excellent defensively, displaying remarkable maturity, and displaying the tactical understanding that Gerrard had to wait for the deep-thinking Benitez's Anfield arrival to truly develop.
With Liverpool's midfield core ageing, Bellingham should be viewed as the ideal leader of Klopp's engine room in the next era. He truly has the potential to be for Liverpool in a few years what Gerrard was for Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez
There's even a chance that Bellingham will play under his idol at Anfield in the future, as current Rangers manager Gerrard is widely regarded as Klopp's replacement when his contract expires in 2024. That is, assuming he continues on his current path, having just finished the season unbeaten to deliver the Gers' first title in a decade.
It would be a surreal scenario for Liverpool to have Gerrard in the dugout and the 'next Gerrard' charging around the Anfield turf, but it is not at all unrealistic. However, regardless of who is in charge, the Reds should do everything they can to secure a future move for Bellingham - he's going to take the world by storm.
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