Football is too easy for Jude Bellingham. Labelling his style of play is hard -

Maybe he should turn his talents to nuclear fusion. Let him cure cancer for fun. Give him a run out as a human quantum computer. When he’s completed all that, probably by half-time, let’s put him to work on one of life’s truly unsolvable problems, like figuring out how to get social media to stop showing us hourly updates on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

Because one thing is abundantly clear: playing football is too easy for Jude Bellingham.

It’s not normal for a 20-year-old to travel to Napoli for what turned out to be a 3-2 Champions League away win over the Scudetto holders and leave pundits arguing at half-time about whether Real Madrid’s new midfielder might be the best player in the world. But that’s just another night for Bellingham, who is pushing his game to stratospheric heights right now while barely breaking a sweat.

He makes it all look so easy that you might not even stop to try and define what it is he does.

For years we’ve mourned the demise of the old-school No 10 (murder weapon: compact defensive lines; motive: pure evil; prime suspect: Mourinho, Jose). False nines and roaming strikers have tried to fill the void, but there was always something uncanny about watching a cold-eyed scorer cosplay as a creative type, like a trained grizzly dancing ballet.

When Karim Benzema left Real Madrid in the summer, it seemed unthinkable that they would sign another striker who could float so freely between the lines, daring defenders to follow him into areas they shouldn’t.

Madrid still haven’t found that player. They haven’t quite got an archetypal No 10, either. But Bellingham does a little of both, pulling the strings between the lines like a classic playmaker and arriving unexpectedly in the box to score goals, a sort of Benzema in reverse.

One reason the stereotypical No 10 didn’t survive the modern era is an artistic indifference to defending. That’s not a problem for Bellingham, a born ball-winner, whose eight tackles, interceptions and blocks all led his team in Naples on Tuesday.

A few minutes after Napoli took an early lead, Madrid trapped them in a corner in a counter-pressing net. Bellingham picked up Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa as the closest man to track, but defending just one opponent is too easy for him. He dropped slyly off of Anguissa’s right shoulder until he could reach both him and Stanislav Lobotka, a subtle adjustment that Giovanni Di Lorenzo didn’t notice until he tried to slip a ball to Lobokta and Bellingham jumped to cut it out with two quick steps and one long, leggy lunge.

The real trick was how he popped right back up from the interception to control the ball in stride, as though sliding at full stretch is just a fun little thing he likes to do on the dribble.

Some players might be frazzled after pulling off a defensive highlight like that. Bellingham is unfrazzleable. He walked into the box and slipped a no-look pass to Vinicius Junior behind the back line for Madrid’s first goal.

“Systems no longer exist in football,” Napoli’s then manager Luciano Spalletti famously proclaimed last year. “It’s all about the spaces left by the opposition. You have to be quick to spot them and know the right moment to strike.”

That quote has led to a lot of confusion about Napoli, who create spaces in the opposition precisely because their 4-3-3 system is so well organised, but it’s an apt description of Madrid’s looser, more individualistic style. Carlo Ancelotti’s players make space mostly by just being better than everyone else.

Not long after that Vinicius Jr goal, Madrid started a build-up from goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga while Napoli fell back into what was supposed to be a 4-1-4-1 defensive block, though that shape got harder to maintain as Madrid abandoned their tactics-board positions to explore their true selves.

First, Rodrygo wandered across from the right wing in Ancelotti’s strikerless formation to join Vinicius Jr on the left wing they both prefer. As the ball arrived at the feet of Eduardo Camavinga (a midfielder moonlighting as a left-back, natch, because systems no longer exist), Bellingham made a run between the two Brazilian left-wingers, overwhelming the ball side and pushing Napoli’s defensive line back.

That was all just prelude. Phase two was sending the ball back into Madrid’s half, drawing out Napoli’s central midfielders to chase Aurelien Tchouameni and Toni Kroos. Now Napoli were stretched in two directions: their defence pushed back and the midfield pulled forward, prying open the lines for Bellingham.

All he had to do was spot the space and know the moment to strike.

What exactly is Bellingham’s true self?

He has completed more through balls this season than all but three players in the top five European leagues, but he’s not some Mesut Ozil-style pure passer. He’s fifth on the same tables for non-penalty goals scored, but doing his Benzema impression is more of a hobby. Off the ball he’s everywhere, but in possession he’s less a Luka Modric-style orchestra conductor than a museum curator like Zinedine Zidane, carefully selecting his unforgettable moments.

Bellingham is never more himself than when he can turn and run at a defence, gazelle legs flying out behind him but coming to land gently under the ball with every step, never not in total control. Maybe he’ll zip a pass behind the back line. Maybe he’ll dribble elegantly around them. One way or another, it ends with him jogging to the corner and throwing his arms out for a goal celebration Madridistas already know by heart.

Football is too easy for Bellingham. But capturing the imagination of fans who have already seen everything — that’s a challenge he might be up for.

(Photo: Carlo Hermann/AFP via Getty Images)

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