How Jude Bellingham compares to Zidane, Iniesta, Modric, Gerrard and more at same age | OneFootball

Highlights

GIVEMESPORT VIDEO OF THE DAY

Pause

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 5:04

Loaded: 1.28%

Jude Bellingham is a pretty special player, isn't he? While he's been impressing everyone for several years now, it seems his move to Real Madrid in the summer has seen him take his game to an entirely new level and his potential seems higher than ever before. The star has taken to life in Spain like a duck to water and is already thriving in the midfield for Los Blancos, but his performances for England are also on the up, with an impressive display against Scotland this week.

It really does seem like the sky is the limit for Bellingham and there's no telling just how good he's going to be. He seems to have reached levels that previous greats haven't quite touched until later in their career. To demonstrate that, we've taken some of the best midfielders of all time and compared their careers are 20 years old to the Englishman's so far, and it's clear to see how impressive he's been.

Frank Lampard

There's no better place to start than comparing Bellingham with three of the greatest English midfielders of all time and the first name up is Frank Lampard. The former Chelsea man is the highest-scoring midfielder in Premier League history and has won a bucketload of trophies during his career, but where was he when he was 20 years old?

Coming off the back of his breakthrough season in the West Ham United first-team, Lampard played all 38 games for the Hammers during the 1998/99 season when he was leaving his teenage years. He scored six goals in all competitions, a number he exceeded in every single season for the remainder of his career. At 20, Lampard was still three seasons away from joining Chelsea and had yet to play for England, but we know how big a career he went on to have.

Steven Gerrard

Moving on from one great English midfielder to another, Steven Gerrard had a fantastic career at Liverpool and is regularly regarded as one of the best players in Premier League history. When he was Bellingham's age, though, he was already showing glimpses of the star he would go on to become.

Turning 20 just days after his first season as a regular member of the Reds first-team wrapped up, the subsequent campaign saw Gerrard take a big step forward and score 10 goals in 50 appearances across all competitions. The Englishman had a fantastic season that year, winning a treble with Liverpool as the club won the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup. He also won the PFA Young Player of the Year award and the PFA Fans' Player of the Year award for his troubles. He obviously went on to be an all-time great, but he was already looking pretty darn good at 20.

Paul Scholes

Rounding out our trio of great English midfielders is arguably the most underrated, Paul Scholes. The former Manchester United man's career got off to a slow start, though, and it wasn't until the season that he turned 20 that he broke into the first team. Making 25 appearances and scoring seven goals that season, he showed promise and indicated the level he was heading towards.

The season was ultimately disappointing for the club, however, as they went without any silverware as Blackburn Rovers pipped them to the Premier League trophy. While he wasn't close to the player he'd become, it was a solid first campaign for Scholes.

Xavi

Similarly to some of the other stars in this list, Xavi broke into the Barcelona first team on a consistent basis during the season in which he turned 20 years old. The Spaniard would go on to become one of the best midfielders ever and was already showing signs of that promise when he was Bellingham's age. Just one year earlier, he won the La Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year award.

At 20, he featured for Spain for the very first time and established himself as a solid first-team player at Barcelona, laying the foundations for what would become a legendary career.

Andres Iniesta

From one incredible Barcelona midfielder to another, Andres Iniesta had spent two years flirting with the club's first team before he finally broke through and established himself as a regular name in the team during the season he was 20 years old. He featured in all but one league game during that campaign, and he quickly formed a solid partnership with Xavi in the middle of the park.

The two would be mainstays for years, and it was shortly after Iniesta grew out of his teenage years that they established that dynamic duo. From there, the Spaniard would have a legendary career, but he was only just putting his stamp on the first team when he was 20 years old.

Kevin De Bruyne

A current Premier League icon, Kevin De Bruyne has emerged as one of the best midfielders in the league's history at Manchester City, but things were looking very different when he was just 20 years old. At that age, the Belgian had already been a first-team player at Genk for a couple of seasons and was actually playing in his final campaign for the club before he left to join Chelsea in 2012.

After scoring eight goals in 36 appearances for the club, the Blues were clearly impressed and brought him to London, but things didn't quite pan out. It wasn't until he was 24 and joined City that he really realised his potential and became the player he is today. It's wild to see the heights he's reached when you look back at where he was at Bellingham's age and shows the Madrid man has a scary head start.

Andrea Pirlo

While Andrea Pirlo went on to become one of Italy's greatest midfielders and his contributions in Serie A cannot be denied, he was far away from the superstar he'd become when he was 20 years old. In fact, he spent the season shortly after reaching the age on loan at Reggina in Italy's top flight.

He couldn't quite break into the Inter Milan team at the time, so the loan move was deemed the best option, but he made 30 appearances during the spell and scored six goals. A return to Inter afterwards didn't work out, and it wasn't until he switched to their rivals AC Milan in 2001 at the age of 22 when he started to become the star he went on to be. Through spells at Milan and Juventus, he established himself as a legend of Italian football, but you'd have been forgiven for expecting a very different career from him when he was on loan at Reggina at just 20 years old.

Luka Modric

There are no better midfielders to end this comparison list on than a couple of Real Madrid icons, and we'll start with Luka Modric, who has consistently been an incredible performer for the side over the last 11 years. His remarkable longevity has ensured the Croatian remains a key figure for Los Blancos even now at the age of 38, but where was he at 20?

When he was Bellingham's age, Modric was just breaking into the Dinamo Zagreb side and had yet to play for the Croatian national team. He made 32 appearances for the club and scored seven goals that season, but remained an unknown commodity to many within football. It wasn't until he moved to Tottenham Hotspur three years later that he really stepped up his game and he went on to become a global superstar. At 20 years old, though, he was still proving himself at the top of Croatian football.

Zinedine Zidane

Arguably the greatest midfielder in Real Madrid history, there's no better player to end this list on than Zinedine Zidane. Every midfielder who succeeds at Los Blancos is compared to the French legend, so it makes sense to do the same with Bellingham and it's quite an interesting result.

Zidane had an undeniably fantastic career and won just about everything there was to win during his career, but he was far from the superstar he'd become when he was Bellingham's age. Shortly after turning 20, the Frenchman joined Bordeaux from Cannes and quickly established himself as a star for the club in Ligue 1. He made 39 appearances and scored 11 goals in all competitions for the club that season, but hadn't even come close to reaching the levels he would go on to compete at.

It wasn't until he was 24 when Zidane joined Juventus and his career skyrocketed. Considering the career he went on to have, it's wild to think how far ahead Bellingham seems to be right now in comparison to when the Frenchman was his age. Considering where all of these names were at 20 years old and the incredible careers they all went on to have, as demonstrated in the table below, it's scary to think about how far Bellingham has already come and just how much he can still accomplish in football in the years to come.

* - Players who are still currently playing.

** - Zidane's assists statistics aren't available in the first couple of years of his career.