By 21 years of age, Jude Bellingham has had a career that several players would have dreamt of.
Bellingham initially had the chance to represent his boyhood club Birmingham City.
However, the youngster made the huge leap of faith to sign for Borussia Dortmund in 2020 and proved to be a terrific signing for them.
After spending three seasons in Germany, the Englishman made a dream move to Real Madrid — where he won the double in his first season and the UEFA Super Cup a few weeks ago as well.
Emerging as a key player for England as well, Bellingham has had an incredible career.
At Manchester City, for instance, other players have not had such fairytale routes to the top of the game.
Kevin De Bruyne, for example, was signed as a 24-year-old by City in 2015.
But before his transfer to the Etihad Stadium, De Bruyne struggled for playing time at Chelsea, headed out on loan to Werder Bremen before joining VFL Wolfsburg permanently and making his mark ahead of his big move.
Carragher likens Erling Haaland and Bellingham in one respect
Similarly, Nathan Ake joined the West London side as a teenager and went out on loan to the likes of Reading, Watford and AFC Bournemouth.
Eventually, Ake made a permanent move to Bournemouth in 2017; as he could not cement his place as one the first-team regulars at Chelsea.
After impressing at the Vitality Stadium, the Dutchman was handed his major break by City in 2020.
Despite having non-traditional career paths, both De Bruyne and Ake have had outstanding careers.
Speaking on The Overlap, Gary Neville discussed how well Bellingham has mapped out his career.
“Do you know Jude Bellingham? When you think, Wrighty [Ian Wright], you’re at Birmingham and Manchester United come in for you, I know it’s not the Manchester United that’s sort of like Sir Alex Ferguson’s era but they come in for you and Dortmund come in for you and you choose to go to Dortmund. And to think to navigate to get where he’s got is like…”
Jamie Carragher replied that much like Bellingham, Erling Haaland also seemingly always had a set career plan in place.
“I think [Erling] Haaland’s the same. I think they’re know that they’re that good that they can choose the path. So Haaland doesn’t go to, sort of a giant straightaway. Did he go to Salzburg from Norway? Red Bull Salzburg.”
“Salzburg, Dortmund, then he goes to City, they map it out.”
Haaland mapped out his career extremely well
The £375,000-a-week man could have fallen to the temptation of signing for a true European giant early into his career.
But it seems like Haaland had a mature head on his shoulders and instead, focused on developing as a player.
After making waves at RB Salzburg, the Norwegian international could have wondered whether it is time to join a club that were ready to win silverware on all fronts in there and now.
But instead, the £51 million man chose to sign for Borussia Dortmund — a club renowned for developing young talent such as Mario Goetze, Robert Lewandowski, Jadon Sancho and Bellingham in the past.
It was only after developing into a world-class goalscorer when Haaland seemingly felt it was the right time to make the biggest move of his career by signing for Manchester City.
Yet, the former Molde number nine had mapped such plans out by the age of 22 — as he joined City as a young, yet established player and was ready to take over English football.
Haaland seems to have the right individuals in and around him to help him make the best decisions.
The same claim can be made about Bellingham.