A family of Real Madrid fans, all four wearing jerseys with Jude Bellingham’s No 5 on the back, walked past a hotel bar near the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu before the recent La Liga game at home to Osasuna.
“You know Bellingham is selling 10 times more jerseys than Vinicius Junior,” someone well placed to know what they were talking about, but who did not want to be named to protect their position, told The Athletic from our seats by the window.
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Neither Madrid nor Adidas would confirm that figure for this article, but anyone who has been to the Bernabeu over the first two months of the season will have seen the huge popularity the England international has already earned.
A tally of 10 goals and three assists from his first 10 games makes for a spectacular start for the €103million (£89m; $109.3m at current exchange rates) signing from Borussia Dortmund, who only turned 20 in June. Bellingham has also impressed everyone — from team-mates to supporters — with his mix of humility and talent, on and off the pitch.
This has catapulted him right into the top bracket of the most marketable and popular young footballers anywhere — alongside his Madrid team-mate Vinicius Jr, Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
“It is a sum of the parts, not just one thing,” Steve Martin, CEO at marketing firm M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, tells The Athletic.
“What he is doing on the pitch is aspirational to all players, older and younger. The way he plays the game is quite unique — he is everywhere, scoring goals, tackling, athletic, so watchable.
“He has mirrored that in how he has handled himself off the pitch, in broader appeal and broader marketing. It is quite a compelling package.”
Preparations to make the most of Bellingham’s move to Madrid were underway before the deal was announced publicly on June 14. Adidas staff had a strong marketing campaign ready, with input from Madrid, that included the slogan “Made in Birmingham. 100% Real”.
Staff at the kit company would not have been given much advance warning of the transfer. However, Madrid’s strong links to Adidas, whose kits they have worn since 1998, would have been a big help in being able to quickly and efficiently produce marketing material such as videos, photos and other content to promote his arrival in Spain.
1/1 😎 pic.twitter.com/XDAUKwNOmu
— adidas Football (@adidasfootball) June 14, 2023
As the England international moved from Germany to Spain, it was seen as important to stress his links to home. Just a few weeks later, Bellingham appeared at a ‘pop-up shop’ in his home city of Birmingham, handing out hundreds of free 2023-24 Madrid jerseys to local kids. He also gave an interview explaining why he had wanted to thank people who had supported his early steps in his journey towards the Bernabeu. Such an ability to appear natural while remaining on message is a key part of the Bellingham attraction.
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“It has a lot to do with the way he communicates,” Martin says. “He is articulate, but not in a forced way — he is natural and authentic.”
Bellingham also took a quiz on Real Madrid TV about the club’s history. He knew that the Cibeles fountain is where they celebrate trophies, remembered watching Cristiano Ronaldo, Casemiro and Marco Asensio score in the 2017 Champions League final, and he recalled that among the club’s former England internationals is Laurie Cunningham from the 1980s. It would all likely have been prepared, but everything looked natural and fresh, including Bellingham joking with the host when he got an answer wrong.
💡 QUIZ TIME💡
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) June 26, 2023
😏 Do you know more about Real Madrid than @BellinghamJude?pic.twitter.com/QYxZ5eviHi
Bellingham let it be known that he already spoke some Spanish and was taking further language classes using an app. The feeling of someone settling almost immediately into a new culture and environment was different to some previous British players at Madrid, especially Gareth Bale.
“Bellingham has known what he is getting into for a while,” says Gareth Balch, chief executive and co-founder of Two Circles, a sports marketing agency.
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“There are a bunch of footballers who got lost in the early internet era, did not get good advice, did not deal well with the impact on their lives. Bellingham is from a new generation who have grown up in this world of social media scrutiny.
“He has been a star since he was 16. He is better advised and there is more professionalism wrapped around these people, once they take the advice they are given. He can thrive as an icon and as a star, but also be human. That is an incredibly valuable combination.”
Alongside his incredible scoring rate for Real, Bellingham has also been taking responsibility for playmaking, working hard defensively and helping his team-mates.
While clearly enjoying the attention from his new team’s fans, he has shared the credit and limelight, such as when directing supporters to applaud team-mate Federico Valverde for assisting a goal against Osasuna last weekend.
Bellingham has also appeared confident, but not arrogant, in his social media use. He has shown an innate understanding of his own personal branding and ability to connect with team-mates Vinicius Jr and Eduardo Camavinga, or Spain’s tennis superstar Carlos Alcaraz.
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“Not many players can just drop into Madrid and look like they have been there for 10 years,” Martin says. “Dortmund helped with that — he made a major call to leave England at that age (16) and test himself in a different culture. At Madrid, he has come out of the box well and become much loved by fans very quickly. It is also how he has handled himself; he has not come in as the big ‘I am’.”
Bellingham’s openness on social media has also seen him share photos of him growing up alongside brother Jobe, the 18-year-old who plays as a midfielder or forward at Championship club Sunderland. He showed his connection to his roots this summer with a post when Birmingham City great Trevor Francis died, including a photo of him as a kid with the former striker. Commercial appearances are also often connected to his home community and younger fans.
What a moment back in Stourbridge, seeing all the kids doing my celebration. 🙌
— Jude Bellingham (@BellinghamJude) September 21, 2023
I joined them at a @FunFootballUK session, where children can play and enjoy the game, for free.😍
@mcdonaldsuk are running more football sessions this month. Sign up 👉 https://t.co/MZ3sDouXoh… pic.twitter.com/13YccPMIil
“Bellingham appeals to every age group — kids love him, but so do the middle-aged guys with the money, and female fans, too,” Martin says. “He cuts through audiences. They are all starting to relate to him and the more he beds himself in, it will be even stronger.”
Preparation for the global superstar stage has included close management by his parents and support from marketing and branding experts. Such melding of the personal and professional reminds Balch of how former tennis great Roger Federer curated his image in a way that was hugely attractive to both fans and sponsors.
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“Federer fundamentally understood his greatness, and lived with it, then built a human but commercial machine around that,” Balch says. “Bellingham is on his way to doing that.”
One difference at Madrid is the club’s insistence it receives 50 per cent of all its players’ personal image rights deals. This has caused issues in the past, including during contract renewals with Cristiano Ronaldo and during the long negotiations with PSG and Mbappe.
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Madrid believes the 50-50 arrangement is a win-win for both sides, given how a player’s status and visibility are raised by the club’s on- and off-pitch activities, including a greater chance to win the Champions League and Ballon d’Or. The club also retain veto power over some sponsors — for example, they do not want their players signing deals with cryptocurrency companies.
“It is a trend you will see more of as people understand how value is created,” Balch says. “The club needs a star and the star needs a club. Real Madrid have understood that value and negotiated pretty hard on this over time. They do a lot to help elevate the value of their players through the history of their brand.”
Madrid’s impact on Bellingham’s personal brand can be seen from his total Instagram followers having doubled since joining Madrid (from less than 10 million in early June to 18.7 million at the time of writing). That is still less, for the moment at least, than the 20 million followers of Lucas Vazquez, who has benefitted from being a Los Blancos squad member for over a decade.
Although Bellingham has played regularly in the Champions League at Dortmund and has been part of England teams at the European Championship and World Cup, moving to Madrid is another step up in terms of commercial reach.
“Madrid is at a totally different commercial level, hitting multiple fanbases in multiple countries,” Martin says. “He will now have a choice of sponsor partners. You have to be smart about how much you take on. Maybe before he would take it as it is a good commercial deal, now it is more than that.”
Madrid’s kit deal with Adidas was signed in 2019, runs until 2027-2028 and was reportedly worth €1.1billion, making it the biggest such deal in the world. Rather than a share of every shirt sold, the club receive a percentage of the profit generated each year through their shared business with Adidas.
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No matter how many ‘Bellingham 5’ jerseys are sold, even starting at €150 each, it will not realistically pay off even a big chunk of his €103million price. Or even match his reported €20m a year wages.
“The idea that any player sold a million shirts and paid for his transfer is just nonsense,” Martin says. “But obviously the goal is to sell more Real Madrid shirts across the world. That is why Adidas pay such big numbers (to be Madrid’s kit partner) and they need to recoup that investment. There would be all sorts of different triggers in the deal.”
A source close to the Madrid dressing room compares the many thousands of Bellingham jerseys seen around the Bernabeu in recent weeks to the early 2000s, when fans would rush to buy a shirt adorned with the names and numbers of Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Ronaldo Nazario each summer. The effect back then was even greater, the source says, although that was normal given they were already established galacticos, while Bellingham has just turned 20. The most recent similar frenzy was when charismatic Spanish star Isco, then 21, joined in 2013.
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Throughout Florentino Perez’s two stints as president, Madrid have targeted British players in the transfer market, from Beckham to Michael Owen, Jonathan Woodgate to Bale, reflecting an awareness of the importance of including English-speaking markets in the club’s global commercial reach.
“The galacticos were a mix of nationalities that allowed them to connect with local audiences all over the world,” Martin says. “Since Beckham and Owen, there has not been the same dent. Bale was terrific, albeit not as good at the marketing off the pitch. Some English players can punch above their weight in terms of their importance and social media following, but this is not really about having an English player, it is about having Bellingham.”
The Bernabeu hierarchy always maintains their club’s brand is far bigger than that of any individual player — even Beckham or Ronaldo. They say that, ultimately, sponsors and fans are attracted by the team winning the biggest trophies more than any individual player’s personality or contribution. However, there is still huge value to the club in selling hundreds of thousands of ‘Bellingham 5’ jerseys in Spain and around the world each year.
“The value is not just in the shirt sales, it is in more people walking around with their sponsor on the front of their shirt and the eyeballs that generates,” Balch says. “The data shows Jude Bellingham has taken Madrid into countries that are really, really valuable for the club. There are African countries in particular where La Liga really struggles and the Premier League is strongest.”
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Bellingham himself does not directly earn anything when a Madrid fan buys one of his jerseys, but the commercial potential he has already shown will leave him well-placed next time contract renewal talks begin.
“Over time, his stardom and value will rise before the next contract negotiations,” says Balch. “Real Madrid are the house that always wins, but the player will do pretty well, too, in the long term.”
Bellingham has still to achieve the commercial reach of football’s enduring global superstars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, or retired greats such as ex-Madrid galacticos Beckham and Zidane.
However, the timing of his move to the Bernabeu, and the greater opportunities his new club provides on and off the pitch, have been perfect.
The evidence of the past two months, including out-selling team-mate Vinicius Jr in jersey sales at Madrid, shows the Englishman is capable of matching the Brazilian, Mbappe and Haaland at the very top tier of global football superstars.
“Bellingham is the new era coming through after Messi and Ronaldo, one of the heirs to the throne,” Martin says.
“There has been a huge gap, there are few 28- or 29-year-old massive superstars. Now you have Bellingham, who is 20, at the big club, handles himself well and is very likeable. That is the biggest thing — he has to continue as he is and not get his head turned. Like in any career, there will be some highs and lows, but his fame will build and build and build if he continues to perform.”
(Top photo: Alberto Gardin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)