Jude Bellingham's celebration is already a trend

Jude Bellingham is the most admired footballer in the world right now. There is no doubt about that after his brilliant start to the season at Real Madrid with eight goals and two assists. But it's not just the extraordinary numbers that have made him an international football star, but also the way he dominates on the pitch. The way he runs elegantly across the pitch displaying an indomitable physical strength, the way he reads the game better than anyone else and is always in the right place at the right time. The personality with which, at the age of just 20, he swept away any pressure brought on by the more than 100 million euros Real Madrid paid for him from Borussia Dortmund in the summer. He took over the number 5 jersey from Zinedine Zidane and played game after game at an outstanding level and was game-changing in both LaLiga and the Champions League. Add to that an iconic cheer, the limitless wingspan of an NBA player and a look of pride and charisma that is lost in the void as he searches for an indefinable place in the crowd.

To be fair, it’s not a mere celebration. It’s an image that transcends the world of football and flow into the pop iconography. Stand still and open your arms to savor the moment it’s a move so simple and so powerful, a posture that can be easily replicate in every context. You can do it at the bar, in the office, at the gym. Everywhere. It’s the visual representation of an unescapable force. The ultimate confirmation came from one of the most important events in sport, the US Open, thanks to Carlos Alcaraz, another youngster who erased the word pressure from his vocabulary thanks to talent, application, and a bit of arrogance. After he beat Alexander Zverev in the quarter finals, he opened his arms as a victory sign inviting all the Arthur Ashe Stadium to bask in his glory. Because this is what Bellingham is trying to communicate. After every goal, he forces us to admire his greatness, his inevitable talent. And at the same time, he feed himself with the emotions that he causes.

Bellingham celebrates in the same way wether he stands in front of a fuming audience ready to cut his head off like it happened in his La Liga’s debut against Athletic Club at the San Mamés Stadium or when he scored a late game winning goal in a fully packed Santiago Bernabeu or when he silences an entire crowd like it happened against Napoli in Champions League at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. He celebrated every goal in the same way with every team he played for. He has done it as kid while making his professional debut with Birmingham, he did it when he moved to Germany to play for Borussia Dortmund and he has shown it in Qatar during the last World Cup with England. In his celebration you will not find show-off signs like in Cristiano Ronaldo’s “Siuuu”, you’ll meet by a deafening silence that smells of greatness. You can feel the evocative power from a kid that thanks to a simple gesture has turned from a player into a worldwide icon. The footballer with the biggest swag of them all. And if she's on the pitch against Italy tomorrow night, there's every hope we won't see her at Wembley too.