Jude Bellingham sung David Beckham’s praises but admitted the superstar had made him feel a little self-conscious as he reflected on meeting the former England international in the latest episode of his YouTube series.
Beckham was one of a handful of Englishmen that have broken into the Real Madrid set-up in recent decades ahead of Bellingham’s 2023 move to the Spanish club from Borussia Dortmund.
But the 21-year-old was quick to step outside of the midfielder’s long shadow in the Spanish capital as saw out an impressive debut season for Los Blancos.
Spurring the side to LaLiga and Champions League success in 2023-24, Bellingham’s blistering showing has also seen him garner a Ballon d’Or nomination for his showings at both club and country level.
His rise at the Bernabeu also led to the Stourbridge native making the cover of EAFC 25 – with the game’s campaign seeing Bellingham and Beckham link up for the first time.
Jude Bellingham had high praise for David Beckham after meeting him at a recent EAFC shoot
The two Real Madrid stars linked up for a promotional campaign for this year’s game edition
Beckham shared videos of the pair on set together to his social media accounts this summer
After taking part in a promotional video to publicise the game, the player revealed that meeting the ex-Man United icon had been somewhat awe-inspiring.
‘It’s an honour, really,’ Bellingham said about meeting the former professional on his ‘Out of the Floodlights’ series.
‘There’s always that thing about don’t meet your heroes, and he’s one that I’ve met and actually thought, “he’s amazing and he seems like a really down to earth guy” regardless of how famous he is and what he’s achieved in his career and his life.’
There was a downside to their meeting, however, with Bellingham adding: ‘He makes me look a little bit uglier, but you can learn to deal with that if it’s on the cover of video games.’
Beckham had previously reached out to Bellingham to offer him a message of support before he made the move to Real Madrid, but the pair had previously never met in person.
Bellingham was announced as the cover star for EA Sports FC 25 after a blistering first season at Real Madrid
Ahead of the move, former Real Madrid man Beckham sent the 21-year-old his congratulations (pictured in 2006)
‘David Beckham messaged me briefly to wish me all the best,’ Bellingham told PA in July of last year.
‘It is one of those moves where everyone has their input from the outside so you do hear a lot of things and advice, I am quite good at filtering out the good from the bad, so far it has been really positive from ex-players.
‘I will try and take that on board and at some point maybe get in touch with them and see how they adapted to life in Spain.’
