Jude Bellingham's brilliant response to being called a 'tap-in merchant' at Real Madrid
Real Madrid sensation Jude Bellingham had a brilliant response to being labelled a "tap in merchant".
Bellingham scored a stunning brace in his first El Clasico fixture against Barcelona on Saturday as Real came from 1-0 down to claim a huge win at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
Ilkay Gundogan had opened the scoring early on for the La Liga champions but Bellingham came up clutch in the second half.
Advert
Having been fairly quiet in the game, the 20-year old rifled in an outstanding 25-yard strike past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in the 68th minute.
His trademark celebration came out in stoppage time when Bellingham popped up with a last-gasp winner.
It was his 13th goal in the same amount of games since signing for Real in an £88 million switch.
However, despite his quality displayed, some have given Bellingham the "tap-in merchant" tag given a few of his strikes have been from close-range.
Real mocked that label by writing "Our tap-in merchant" on X, adding a video of Bellingham discussing his goals in the game and addressing his tap-in goals in a mature manner.
He said: "I'll probably say the first one. I can imagine everyone battering me for the second one, I know I get a lot of grief about scoring tap-ins.
"When everyone stood still I was on the move. You create your own luck and you create your own opportunities and I've done it again for the second goal.
"The first one was finally a bit better, a bit more classy."
Bellingham has now surpassed Zinedine Zidane's best goalscoring season for Real after a seamless transition into Spanish football.
And manager Carlo Ancelotti has already set him a big target for his tally come the end of the season.
Speaking after the win, Ancelotti said: "He can easily reach 20-25 goals. 'We don't have in mind that he is a scorer or a striker. He is scoring, but we wait for the rest of us to score goals.
"Bellingham plays like a veteran. He's got a fantastic attitude."
Topics: Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, England, FC Barcelona
Josh Lawless