Nobody's done this at Real Madrid since Cristiano Ronaldo. Bellingham just did.
Three league games, three goals, and a record that had stood untouched since Ronaldo left the Bernabéu.
Jude Bellingham has become the first Real Madrid player since Cristiano Ronaldo to score in each of his side’s opening three La Liga fixtures of a season, a run he extended with a solo goal against Málaga on Sunday.
The comparison is the sort that gets made loosely and is worth taking seriously here, because the bar is genuinely high: Ronaldo scored 311 league goals for Real Madrid, and a category in which he is the last person to have done something is not a category with many entries.
The goal
Bellingham opened the scoring at the Bernabéu in the 19th minute, beating multiple Málaga defenders before finishing past Alfonso Herrero. He then had a hand in the second — a header blocked by Carlos Puga, whose attempted clearance struck Herrero and crossed the line.
One goal, one forced own goal, and the game effectively finished inside half an hour.
What it means for Mourinho
José Mourinho has three wins from three and ten goals scored. He also has a midfielder producing at a rate that removes an entire category of question from his first months in the job — Real Madrid have spent heavily on the squad around Bellingham this summer, and the player they did not have to buy is currently the one deciding matches.
Record per Sports Illustrated. Match details via beIN Sports and TNT Sports.
Reporting and analysis from the ohMyLeague newsroom. Rename or replace this byline with your own writers.
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