The most complete midfielder in Europe, as Jude Bellingham keeps being labelled during the breathtakingly brilliant start to his Real Madrid career, is causing concern to his head coach, Carlo Ancelotti. Bellingham has a tender shoulder, strapped and bandaged beneath his jersey, and he already seems indispensable.
Such has been Bellingham’s influence, a 20 year old who only moved to Spain in the summer, that when he winced in pain after falling awkwardly at the weekend, the Bernabeu stadium held its breath.
He is the leading scorer for Madrid this season – 13 in 14 matches – and the only fixtures they have dropped points in are those where Bellingham has not been on the scoresheet. If he gets the all-clear for Wednesday's Champions League meeting with Braga, he’ll be in search of a fourth goal in as many European matches.
Braga supporters, anticipating their club’s first ever engagement at the Bernabeu, like to think they have the best all-round midfielder in Portuguese football, and feel blessed that for a good stretch of his three-year spell with them, Moatasem Al Musrati has been their best-kept secret.
But so consistently effective is Al Musrati that the sirens call more and more loudly. Ambitious Premier League clubs like Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers have asked about him in recent months; closer-to-home giants like Benfica and Sporting hold a long-term interest. Marseille and Atletico Madrid enquired about Al Musrati, whose contract with Braga runs until 2026, during the summer.
He is several years senior to Bellingham, at 27, but has come to Europe’s elite competition via a far less streamlined path than Bellingham’s route of English club academy followed by Borussia Dortmund’s fabled finishing school.
Al Musrati is from Libya, a country absent from their continent’s showpiece event, the Africa Cup of Nations finals, for over a decade and typically bypassed on the trade routes of talent scouts from Europe and even the wealthier Gulf leagues. It needed determination for him to pursue his ambition to move abroad and thrive. A dream, he has said, he held from the age of eight.
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Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham celebrates scoring their first goal with Antonio Rudiger in the 2-1 Clasico win against Barcelona at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on October 28, 2023. Reuters -
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham, centre, celebrates with Antonio Rudiger, Vinicius Junior and Joselu after scoring his team's second goal. AFP -
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham scores their second goal. Reuters -
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham celebrates after scoring his team's second goal. AFP -
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham celebrates his second goal with teammate Luka Modric. EPA -
Jude Bellingham scores Real Madrid's second goal. Reuters -
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham scores their first goal. Reuters -
Barcelona's Ilkay Gundogan scores their first goal. Reuters -
Barcelona's Ilkay Gundogan after scoring the opening goal. EPA -
Barcelona's Ilkay Gundogan, centre, celebrates with Barcelona's Ferran Torres, left, and Barcelona's Gavi after scoring his side's opening goal. AP
His talent took him to Tripoli’s Al Ittihad, Libya’s most decorated club, as a teenager, and to the first of his 42 caps for his country at 17. At 20, he set off for Iberia and various, speculative trials.
Vitoria Guimaraes signed him, and after a steady 18 months in their B, or feeder, team was promoted to the senior side. Local recognition of his poise, marshalling the space just in front of defence, came quickly. He scored on his first appearance in the Europa League group stage.
In the winter window of 2020, Rio Ave swooped for him, on the suggestion of their much-travelled head coach Carlos Carvalhal. “I liked him from day one,” said Carvalhal. “He gets better and better: a fantastic player.”
Carvalhal made sure to bring Al Musrati to Braga when he moved there six months later. Together they won a Portuguese Cup, beating Benfica in the 2021 final, and shared in successive runs into the knockout phases of the Europa League.
The strong bond between coach and player was only broken when Carvalhal left Braga for what would be a very brief stint in charge of Al Wahda.
Under Artur Jorge, the Braga coach since the beginning of last season, Al Musrati has broadened his repertoire. His well-timed interventions and firm tackles remain vital when out of possession, and his precise distribution, particularly via long-distance diagonal passes, is a key part of their attacking gameplan.
He has added more goals to his portfolio: four already this season, one short of his best across a whole campaign, set during 2022-23, when Braga earned a place in the pre-qualifiers for the Champions League, a competition they are in for the first time in 11 years.
That puts Al Musrati on the most elevated platform, a shop window for what Braga imagine will be major offers to test himself in a wealthier league than Portugal’s. “If he leaves Braga, he should go to a big club,” Carvalhal said. “I know he’s capable of that level, and will keep on rising.”
On Wednesday, Al Musrati may have his defensive load lightened a little. Bellingham’s sore shoulder could restrict the Englishman to a place on the bench, as a precaution, and given Madrid’s comfortable berth at the top of the group. Al Musrati was obliged to keep a vigilant watch on Madrid’s superstarlet two weeks ago when the clubs met in Portugal and couldn’t get quite close enough to prevent Bellingham netting Madrid’s second goal in the 2-1 win.
“He’s ok but he didn’t finish [Tuesday’s] training session,” said Ancelotti of Bellingham. “I’ll assess him in the morning. We know against Braga we’ll have to really battle. They have a lot of quality.”
