Josep Clotet / Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV
Pep Clotet, it turns out, can produce top football players.
A new star has emerged in world football. Jude Bellingham scored a double in El Clasico and brought Real Madrid a strong victory over Barcelona. And after the match, the hero of the day turned to the coach, who just recently… failed in Russia.
It turns out that a specialist in educating top youth worked in Moscow!
First in the 21st century
In the eternal confrontation between two Spanish megacities, Barcelona scored in the sixth minute – Ilkay Gundogan took advantage of a mistake by the Madrid defense. Until the 68th minute, the Catalans had the advantage, but then Jude Bellingham stepped in and scored brilliantly from distance. He also became the hero of Madrid, finishing off Luka Modric’s cross in stoppage time. Real won with a score of 2:1 and returned to first place in the Spanish Championship.
Bellingham was named man of the match and made history. The Englishman became the first football player in the 21st century to score a double in his debut El Clasico. The guy also scored 13 goals in his first 13 matches for Real – something only Alfredo Di Stefano and Cristiano Ronaldo had previously done.
The Englishman had already been admired in the football world. His teammate Luka Modric admitted that he cannot explain how Jude creates beauty on the field. Manchester City forward Erling Haaland called Bellingham “unreal”. And Newcastle defender Kieran Trippier joked that he was scared by Jude’s age – they say, if he plays like this at 20 years old, then what will happen next?
“Thanks for all”
After El Clasico, a remarkable photo appeared on social networks. On it, Jude Bellingham stands with Pep Clotet, the former coach of Torpedo Moscow. The photo was published by the specialist himself.
“It was nice to see you on the field again and enjoy the player you have become,” Clotet wrote.
Josep Clotet and Jude Bellingham / Photo: © Personal archive of Josep Clotet
It would seem, what’s wrong with this? But Jude reacted to this post, and with maximum warmth.
“Thank you for everything, Pep Clotet,” the footballer wrote, reposting the message.
As it turned out, the Spanish coach was watching the match between Barcelona and Real Madrid from the stands. After the game, he approached Bellingham and took a photo together.
“No smiles. Everything is correct”
At first glance, Jude’s reaction seems sensational. Where could the Real Madrid star and the coach who was relegated to the First League with Torpedo Moscow meet? Many football fans also did not immediately discover the connection. Especially fans on social networks mocked Pep Clotet’s famous ban on smiling during training.
— Jude knows Pep’s system. No smiles. Everything is correct,” Ganzhin wrote.
“That’s how people found out that Clotet is no longer the coach of Torpedo,” noted sbvinn.
— “Torpedo” is apparently a super club for Clotet. “I didn’t have enough qualifications,” dreamstep joked.
Pride in Jude
In fact, it was Pep Clotet who was involved in the development of Jude Bellingham. True, Torpedo has nothing to do with it – they crossed paths back in England.
In 2019, Clotet was Birmingham’s head coach and Bellingham was a 16-year-old from the club’s academy. Despite his young age, the guy received the trust of a specialist. The midfielder made his debut in senior football under the leadership of the Spaniard and quickly became a first-team player. In his first season, Jude played 44 matches for Birmingham and helped the team remain in the Championship.
Clotet and Bellingham later stopped working together, but maintained a cordial relationship. In one of the interviews, the Spaniard directly stated that he was proud of his former ward. They still keep in touch.
“I always recommended that he go to a club like Real Madrid.” I’m very proud because I always believed in him, he deserved everything he got. “I, of course, felt proud when the player I trusted in a difficult moment for the team reached such heights,” said Clotet.
Revealed Losers
And how can one not remember Pep’s work in Russia! The Spaniard frankly failed, failing to keep Torpedo in the RPL and almost dropping the team even lower. They hated him and laughed at him. And they didn’t even suspect that Clotet’s system was working, since his pupil was tearing apart Spain!
But Clotet is not the only foreigner who was embarrassed in Russia, but received recognition abroad. You can remember Unai Emery: for six months at Spartak Moscow he was remembered only by the caustic nickname “coach” from Artyom Dzyuba, and then he collected European cups with Sevilla and Villarreal. There was Domenico Tedesco, who did not win anything significant at Spartak, but brought Leipzig the German Cup and Belgium access to Euro 2024. Or another ex-Spartak player, Murat Yakin – he was extremely unstable with the “red-whites”, but then showed a decent result in the Swiss national team, leading it to the playoffs of the 2022 World Cup.
There is now a new name on this list: Pep Clotet. A loser from the Russian championship who raised a superstar.
