Graham HunterOct 23, 2025, 11:00 AM ETCloseGraham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team.Follow on X
play1:48Rashford impressed by ‘unbelievable’ Pedri since move to BarcelonaMarcus Rashford reveals which Barcelona players have impressed him since joining the club.
play1:54Is the El Clásico Alonso’s hardest managerial test?Craig Burley and Steve Nicol look ahead to Real Madrid vs. Barcelona after UCL victories for both teams.
play1:34Why has LaLiga called off game in Miami?Samuel Marsden explains all the details behind LaLiga’s decision to cancel scheduled Barcelona vs. Villareal match in Miami after ‘strong opposition’ from players and clubs.
Alonso admits he’s ‘thrilled’ to be coaching Bellingham (0:28)Xabi Alonso praises Jude Bellingham after he gave Real Madrid a 1-0 win over Juventus. (0:28)
Rashford impressed by ‘unbelievable’ Pedri since move to BarcelonaMarcus Rashford reveals which Barcelona players have impressed him since joining the club.
Is the El Clásico Alonso’s hardest managerial test?Craig Burley and Steve Nicol look ahead to Real Madrid vs. Barcelona after UCL victories for both teams.
Craig Burley and Steve Nicol look ahead to Real Madrid vs. Barcelona after UCL victories for both teams.
Why has LaLiga called off game in Miami?Samuel Marsden explains all the details behind LaLiga’s decision to cancel scheduled Barcelona vs. Villareal match in Miami after ‘strong opposition’ from players and clubs.
Samuel Marsden explains all the details behind LaLiga’s decision to cancel scheduled Barcelona vs. Villareal match in Miami after ‘strong opposition’ from players and clubs.
Given that over 700 million viewers will watch the latest instalment of the greatest football fixture in the world on Sunday, it’s appropriate that two of El Clásico’s stars are where they are because of the power of TV, and how it magnifies the allure of Real Madrid and Barcelona (stream LIVE 10/26 on ESPN+ (U.S.).
They are different nationalities; have utterly different physiques; incomparable levels of strength, height and power; represent rival clubs; are different characters; and have different trophy-winning records. But the pair are still indelibly linked by the fact that they fell head-over-heels in love with Madrid and Barcelona respectively when they were young, impressionable and watching on TV while dreaming of becoming Clásico heroes.
– Is LaLiga’s American dream over? Why Barça’s Miami match was cancelled – How Man United’s Rashford revitalized his career at Barcelona – Ballon d’Or favorite to Madrid bench: What’s going on with Vini Jr.?
And that is why the then-Borussia Dortmund midfielder turned down Manchester City, and Pep Guardiola, when they made him their No. 1 transfer target in summer 2023, opting to move to Madrid for an initial €103 million instead.
Like David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale before him, he’d savored English football, but his affection, loyalty and ambition had been “stolen” by Los Blancos, the Bernabéu, the “Hala Madrid!” anthem, the glory nights, and the feeling of “owning” the European Cup.
Bellingham didn’t just want to come and play in LaLiga … he specifically yearned to be a Madridista.
Rashford impressed by ‘unbelievable’ Pedri since move to Barcelona
Marcus Rashford reveals which Barcelona players have impressed him since joining the club.
So, on Sunday, when you see him receive the ball from a teammate then twist like a corkscrew to try and rid himself of a hard press from Bellingham, just know that it’s a move he perfected around the chairs of table No. 15 in that family restaurant.
But he very nearly became a Madridista himself, aged 15. Had you forgotten? It was mid-season in 2017-18 and Los Blancos asked him to visit La Fabrica (The Factory), where their great young cadets are molded into Madrid legends.
That day it snowed, any practice games were cancelled, and what little Real Madrid saw of “Pedrito” (little Pedro) in training they didn’t like. Pretty quickly they told him, as he recounts himself: “You don’t have the level we need!”
“It’s my life — since I was a young kid I would always watch Barça games with my family, and my father at the supporters’ club and always wanted them to win,” he said. “Now I can enjoy it from the inside. I’m living everything I dreamt of, and right now, it’s everything to me.
“If I play as if I grew up at La Masia that’s partly because I watched Barça from a very young age. Football from the Canary Islands is quality football, enjoying having the ball, so it’s similar to Barça’s ideology. But by watching so many matches on TV, watching videos of Andrés [Iniesta] or Xavi [Hernández], something sticks with you.
“You try to copy them; you try to practice it. It’s tough to be at that level — you try to improve every day so that, one day, you can do what they did. I would often watch Iniesta videos. He was my idol, and I would try to copy what he did in the video, or what he did in a specific play, how he protected the ball.”
It worked. Pedri now makes Barcelona tick. If you take him away, they’d be like a stopped clock: accurate twice a day, but hopeless the rest of the time.
Is the El Clásico Alonso’s hardest managerial test?
Bellingham, who’s also just 22 years of age, is at a different stage of the relationship with his club.
The midfielder’s long-overdue shoulder operation in the summer saw him miss 63 days of training and playing, and he’s only just getting up to speed.
When I asked Alonso how difficult it was going to be to coach Bellingham to be more consistent and disciplined in his choices of where to go and when to run, he answered: “I think the second half of this win gave a really good example — he was involved in really important phases of the game. He found gaps. The important thing is that he works hard, he’s willing to learn and it’s a process.”
I asked the question because a source close to Ancelotti told me that the manager wanted to adapt Jude’s abilities to compensate for the loss of control caused by Toni Kroos’ departure. But it was hard to get him to play positionally, and “hold” an area of the pitch, as when Bellingham sees an opportunity, problem, or anticipates an opening, he goes on the charge.
Bellingham lives off moments of improvisation, opportunities and bravado; Pedri makes things happen. And there’s a difference.
Of course, Bellingham makes other players better — the chances he creates, the ball-recuperations his tackles produce, the headers he wins, his generosity of spirit — but Pedri lives to make his teams flow. He regulates the tempo of the game, the positional play, and is essential to what Barcelona do collectively — it’s like an orchestra and a conductor.
Bellingham’s England teammate Marcus Rashford told me on Tuesday, after scoring twice for Barcelona against Olympiacos: “Pedri is terrific on the ball, magic happens, but the rival players know that. So, what I have to adapt to is the timing. Where the right spaces are and when to be in them — I’m learning.”
In other words, Rashford arrived already knowing how to dance, but now he’s learning to dance to Pedri’s tempo.
Pedri’s own take on that is also interesting. “I try to control and increase the space I have in a match,” he told me. “We have a lot of attackers in the team, so they always want to push forward. Sometimes it’s better to slow the game down, get our foot on the ball and keep it, because lots of possession turnovers are not good for us as a team. It’s better to slow things down, then attack in a precise way when the team is ready. That’s how we can do most damage.”
The result of this Clásico could well turn on Bellingham. Barcelona are porous; Alonso’s positioning of him between midfield and the strikers renders him more of a goal threat (creating AND scoring), specially while Barcelona are untidy with ball and pressing poorly so their defending looks weaker.
Pedri needs to be the lightning conductor, again. Madrid, even when losing heavily last season, pummeled Barcelona repeatedly. Pedri was everyone’s “offload” option; always available, always calm. And when Madrid ran out of steam, Flick’s team ruthlessly cut them open.
Pedri will be mobbed in possession on Sunday; Alonso will want to press and harass him out of the game because, remember, if the conductor is absent then the orchestra will be out of time and out of tune. And maybe Bellingham will be the one who is asked to do a job on him.
Madrid boss Xabi Alonso said on Wednesday after the win over Juve: “Jude played a very complete game. Initially there were no spaces, so finding him between the lines was difficult. I liked his performance against Getafe very much and I liked him even more today; plus he scored! I’m happy for Jude; he enjoyed himself and was competitive. Positionally he’s an ‘in-between’ player. He has the quality to build the play and the determination to finish chances. He’s one of the most complete footballers in the world.”
Alonso admits he’s ‘thrilled’ to be coaching Bellingham (0:28)Xabi Alonso praises Jude Bellingham after he gave Real Madrid a 1-0 win over Juventus. (0:28)
CloseGraham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team.Follow on X
On Wednesday, Bellingham scored Madrid’s decisive goal in the 1-0 victory against Juventus in the UEFA Champions League almost exactly two years after he opened his European account for Los Blancos at the same end of the Bernabéu (against Union Berlin and with an even greater amount of drama, as he struck a 94th-minute winner.)
I once asked Pedri how he managed to grow up 1,600 miles from Barcelona’s La Masia academy, arrive with absolutely zero tuition in how to play for club, but then act as if he’d spent every waking hour since he was five years old being taught rondos, half-touches, third-man runs, possession/position and “Visca Barça”?
In 2023-24, after his big-money arrival, he immediately became the Barcelona-slayer, with three-straight Clásico wins, three big goals, and a LaLiga title and Supercopa trophy claimed at Barça’s expense. But, like his teammates and now-departed coach Carlo Ancelotti, he took body blow after body blow last season as Madrid watched Hansi Flick’s team reverse the trend to win three trophies, and four-straight Clásicos while scoring 16 times in the process.