Pep Clotet has revealed how Birmingham City knew they were working with a special talent in a teenage Jude Bellingham.
The Torpedo Moscow coach gave Bellingham his debut as a 16 year-old and recalled to AS how he urged the squad’s senior players to realise they were being part of history.
He said: “I remember. It was in a private meeting with the captains, because they were a little hurt. Our goal was to save ourselves, but we were close to the playoffs and we couldn’t take the last step.
“So I made them see that that year we were experiencing something a little different. ‘Surely in the future you will see that you are forming part of the growth of a footballer who is going to mark an era’.
“I don’t think I told them about the world, I told them about England. Now they are aware of their importance in that process. When I talk to them they remind me (laughs).. At that time the prism had to be changed a bit.
“‘Hey, we can achieve the goal or not, but we are doing something much bigger, which is helping a young footballer who will mean a lot to you, but also to help the club’. Because for Birmingham it was a great success. We came from three years where we had a ‘transfer embargo’ and the accounts had derailed a bit. Relaunching Jude helped make the club financially sustainable.”
Birmingham have since retired Bellingham’s No22 shirt.
Clotet continued: “It surprised me at first, to be honest, but then I understood. I realized that it was a very important part of the club. This project had been created for the footballer, who grew up from below, and meant meeting the goal. It was the way of understanding the process as a success: of the coach, of the club, of the player, of the player’s family. A team of various components that worked hard during that year to achieve a certain goal.
“They did the shirt thing to mark the end of a process in which we all participated. It went right.”
On Bellingham’s chances of succeeding with Real Madrid, Clotet is adamant.
He also said: “Yes. He has grown a lot, but the next step is the most difficult because the great footballers have to win. I mentioned it to him in a message during the season. And he has stayed at the gates. That training phase has already been done. Now he has to go to a place where they can teach him how to win. And he is in a perfect place.
“I think that has weighed heavily on his decision. Because Jude is a winner and Real Madrid is a winning club. He can learn the culture of a true great, of a team that always fights to win. I think that’s what makes you give that last point to players that only the greats can do.”
