Brazilian Ronaldo says Manchester United’s £88m one that got away is just like Zidane

Brazilian Ronaldo says Manchester United’s £88m one that got away is just like Zidane

Brazilian Ronaldo says Manchester United’s £88m one that got away is just like Zidane

 

Dan Owen

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer opened up on Manchester United’s failure to sign Jude Bellingham last week with the England star’s performances in Spain reminding one Real Madrid legend of Zinedine Zidane.

 

And those Zidane comparisons are not merely because the Stourbridge-born 20-year-old is swanning around the Santiago Bernabeu with the Frenchman’s iconic number five shirt on his back.

 

Jude Bellingham, one of a number of bonafide elite-level talents Solskjaer wanted at Manchester United, has been the driving force behind a title charge which looks destined to end in a shower of champagne.

 

Bellingham’s fearsome combination of physical and technical gifts, meanwhile, arguably make the one-time Birmingham City whizzkid Real’s most complete central midfield player since Zidane, with the former already bettering the latter’s career-best tally while netting 20 times during a staggering debut season in the Spanish capital.

 

Sevilla v Real Madrid – LaLiga EA Sports

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Manchester United could have had Jude Bellingham

“I love the way Jude Bellingham plays. The way he is playing at Madrid, scoring goals in almost every match, I love to watch him play. He goes forward all the time,” the esteemed Ronaldo Nazario tells the Daily Mail, drawing comparisons between Real’s modern-day talisman and a Galactico of old.

 

“I was watching a few matches in the Bernabeu stadium, and I was looking for Bellingham. He surprised me a lot with his quality. The speed at which he runs into the area, you can see he wants to score goals all the time.

 

“He reminds me a little bit of Zinedine Zidane with his quality.”

 

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To think, if Solskjaer had been given the backing and the support that is likely to be afforded to Man United’s head coach in the Ineos era – be it Erik ten Hag or someone else – Bellingham might currently be wearing red, alongside Erling Haaland and Declan Rice.

 

20 goals in debut season at Real Madrid

“He knew what he wanted. Jude, he was in the building,” Solskjaer tells The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, Bellingham arriving at Carrington for talks shortly before his £25 million move to Borussia Dortmund in 2020.

 

“You can’t ask a lot more for a midfielder. I was there (to meet Bellingham) obviously as the manager. Sir Alex (Ferguson) was there. Bryan Robson was there and (Eric) Cantona was there that day when he came to the club.

 

“We all spoke to him. Of course, we sold it to him as well as we could, but he knew what he wanted. (Bellingham chose Dortmund because of) X amount of minutes in the first team. That’s it.

 

“The most mature 17-year-old I’ve e