Jude Bellingham faces shirt number issue at Real Madrid with £113.5m transfer confirmed
Jude Bellingham faces a shirt number issue at Real Madrid with his favourite number 22 already taken by Antonio Rudiger after his £113.5m move was confirmed.
Jude Bellingham faces a shirt number issue at Real Madrid with his favourite number 22 already taken by Antonio Rudiger after his £113.5m move was confirmed.
Jude Bellingham faces a shirt number issue at Real Madrid after his move from Borussia Dortmund was confirmed.
Bellingham, 19, will join Carlo Ancelotti’s side next season after Los Blancos revealed he will be announced as a Madrid player on Thursday.
However, he will be forced to stray from his favourite number 22 shirt which he wore at Dortmund and Birmingham City, with the latter retiring the number in honour of their former academy player.
He also wore the number during England’s World Cup campaign in Qatar, but his iconic number is already taken by former Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger at the Bernabeu.
But for England the Brummie is yet to settle on a squad number after he previously wore the number eight shirt for England in their latest European Championship qualifiers.
After months of speculation regarding Bellingham’s future, his next destination has been revealed by Real Madrid who have won the race for the centre-midfielder.
In a statement, Real Madrid said: "Real Madrid CF and Borussia Dortmund have agreed on the transfer of the player Jude Bellingham, who will remain linked to our club for the next six seasons."
"Tomorrow, Thursday, June 15, at 12:00 noon at Real Madrid City, the presentation ceremony for Jude Bellingham as a new Real Madrid player will take place."
"Next, Jude Bellingham will appear before the media."
The transfer fee is believed to see Dortmund pocket a guaranteed £88.5million with the potential for the deal to rise to £113.5m as a result of £25m worth of performance-related add-ons.
But after becoming synonymous with the number 22 shirt at both Birmingham and in Dortmund, Bellingham will likely have to select a new number to wear as he looks to continue his incredible rise in football at the biggest club of them all.
Bellingham adopted the number 22 as his own at Birmingham because it represents his ability as a midfielder to play every position in that area of the pitch - as a four, eight and 10.
Madrid currently have the number four, eight and ten numbers all occupied by David Alaba, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric respectively, although Karim Benzema’s departure opens up the number nine jersey.
It’s not out of the question whether Rudiger would be willing to give up the number 22 shirt after only wearing that number since arriving in Madrid last summer, previously wearing number two for Chelsea and AS Roma.