Why Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham walks alone on the pitch before matches

Description

Before every Real Madrid game, the world’s most exciting young player prepares himself.

If you got to the Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich early enough, you could have seen Jude Bellingham do what he always does. About an hour ahead of kick-off, while his team-mates were still in the dressing room, Bellingham was out on the Bernabeu pitch.

Nobody else was with him. He slowly strolled around, his AirPods in his ears. He very carefully and deliberately pressed the turf with the balls of his feet. He looked up at the vast stands above him. He became part of the setting. He took advantage of this brief moment of solitude.