Given just how much he’s packed into his career so far, it’s easy to forget that Jude Bellingham only turned 21 this summer.
Since he made his professional debut in 2019, Bellingham has seen his squad number retired at Birmingham City, spent three seasons in the Bundesliga where he won the league’s Player of the Season award, moved to Real Madrid for €100million where he won four trophies including the Champions League and landed the La Liga Player of the Season gong.
He’s also one of England’s key players and a frontrunner for this year’s Ballon d’Or award, which begs the question, what will he achieve next?
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Well, if data and fitness experts Casas de Apuestas is to be believed, the Englishman may have to slow down if he is to avoid burning out before he hits his supposed peak years.
The experts have analysed the six seasons that Bellingham has played in his career and have warned the midfielder that he may only have two more seasons left at the very highest level, owing to the excessive number of minutes he has already played. The careers of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and Dele Alli have all been examined by data experts, too, to see what effect playing too much football at a young age can do to a player’s career.
The careers of Alli and Owen offer a cautionary tale to Bellingham as by the time they both reached the end of their eighth seasons, they showed significant signs of burnout, which saw their goal contributions decline steeply.
Bellingham has played 16,891 minutes in his career so far, which is more than Gerrard (12,951) and Lampard (9,674) had at the same stage of their careers, with that duo able to operate at a high level until their mid-30s.
Worryingly for Bellingham, his trajectory is currently mirroring that of Alli and Owen, who peaked well before their second decade as professionals.
Bellingham, who played more than 50 games for club and country last season, is currently sidelined with a calf injury, but with Real Madrid competing on domestic and European fronts, with the revamped and expanded Club World Cup scheduled for the summer, he is likely to see a significant workload again this season.
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