Jude Bellingham got his first taste of El Clasico as a Real Madrid player on Saturday evening when he was on the receiving end of a Barcelona win.
Barca rode out 3-0 winners in the exhibition match at the AT&T Stadium in Texas, with Ousmane Dembele, Fermin Lopez and Ferran Torres scoring the goals.
Both sides started the match with strong line-ups, with Bellingham sitting at the tip of a midfield diamond behind Brazilian attackers Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo.
Thanks to his meteoric rise in recent years, Bellingham is certainly no stranger to the limelight and high-pressure situations.The 20-year-old midfielder made his Birmingham City debut at 16, joined Borussia Dortmund in 2020 aged 17 and later that year made his senior England debut.
He's played in front of a vociferous Westfalenstadion, represented his country in a World Cup quarter-final and signed for arguably the most high-stakes club in the world.
Earlier this month he completed a £115m move to Real Madrid, making him the most expensive British player in history.
You could say Jude has a thick skin, although nothing could prepare him for the pettiness and squabbling of Real Madrid vs Barcelona.
Saturday's meeting in the States was officially a friendly, but everyone knows no meeting between the two Spanish rivals could ever be described as such a thing.That became clear just before half-time when both sets of players became involved in a furious confrontation.A heavy challenge from Frenkie de Jong kicked things off and plenty of pushing, shoving and cursing followed.
In the middle of the melee was Bellingham, although as fans on Twitter noticed, he looked completely baffled by the whole situation.
"Wallah I'm sorry but I can’t stop laughing he looks so confused," one fan said, while another quipped: "Jude was like wtf is going on this is supposed to be a friendly."Some wondered whether Bellingham's grip - or lack thereof - of Spanish limited his involvement in the skirmish.
"They didn’t teach him Spanish curse words yet," one user suggested, while another joked: "He’s deleting Duolingo as soon as he gets home cause what do you do with 'yo como manzanas' in this situation?"
If Bellingham needs to brush up on his Spanish insults, then he has a few months before Los Blancos face Barcelona on October 29th in the first Clasico of the Liga season.
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