When Real Madrid signed Bellingham was not hiring a striker, nor what had sparked interest in the former Dortmund It was his scoring ability. But it turns out that English has been revealed as a “killer” in the area in Spain, in an explosion that other footballers also experienced, such as James Rodríguez or Fede Valverde, with Ancelotti in charge. «He can easily reach 20 or 25 goals, because he has started very well. We don't consider him a goalscorer, but at the moment he is scoring a lot of goals,” the Real Madrid coach confessed about Bellingham after the double he scored against Barcelona in Montjuïc.
He is not a striker, but with nine games left in the League he leads the scoring table and has a chance of ending up lifting the trophy if his coach's forecast is around. He adds 16 goals on matchday 29, one more than Borja Mayoral and Budimir (15 points), and two ahead of Dovbyk and Morata (14). Numbers that confirm a slowing trend in the Pichichi, which proves the lowest record in the last fifteen seasons at this point in the championship. Last year, with nine games left, the best scorer was Lewandowski with 17 goals and two seasons ago the race was led by Benzema with 22. From there back in time the numbers skyrocket in a stratospheric way thanks to the struggle of giants who for a long time led Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Argentine won eight Pichichi trophies, compared to Cristiano's three, with the maximum of Leo's 50 goals in the 2011-2012 season and CR7's 48 in the 2014-15 academic year. Numbers from another world if compared to the current ones or even looking back, at the end of the last century or the beginning of this one, when the scorers were earthly beings.
Before the arrival of the two “Martians”, the last Pichichi was Diego Forlan, who scored 32 goals with Atlético and took the baton of Dani Güiza, whose 27 with Mallorca made him the best sniper in 2008. The only one who broke Cristiano and Messi's streak of Pichichis was Luis Suárez, with 40 goals in 2016 and, that year, on matchday 29, CR7 added eleven goals more than those now signed by Bellingham. The top at this point in the League in the last fifteen seasons is Messi, who had 43 in 12-13 and who signed, for example, 37 a year before. Then only Cristiano kept his eye on him, but with both of them out of the League the numbers have continued a clear downward trend.
Bellingham can get the Pichichi without being a center forward, although what he is doing confirms his evolution towards a kind of total footballer capable of creating play in the center of the field and entering the area as a “9”. Lewandowski reached his 13th goal in this League at the Metropolitano and needs a final sprint like last year, when he scored six goals in the last nine games, to retain the trophy he won in his debut in Spain. Polish has been more subdued this year, infected by Barcelona's poor ability to create play in some sections and even disconnected from the rest of his teammates in those games in which he reproached the youngsters for not finding him when he was unmarked. Now he is more in tune and this is demonstrated by his performance against Atlético, where in addition to scoring 0-2 he gave two assists.
Next season the fight for the Pichichi could become more expensive If the arrival of Mbappé ends up being confirmed, who already knows that he is not going to continue in France and that he has to decide his next destination. The Paris Saint Germain forward scored three of the six goals that his team scored against Montpellier on Sunday and is the best scorer in Ligue 1 with 24 goals in 24 games. An average of one goal per game that even improves if you look at his overall numbers for the course, where he has scored 38 in 37 appearances.
The closest thing there is to Cristiano and Messi right now. «His arrival would be great news for Real Madrid and for Spanish football. It is one of the best in the world. “Bellingham, Haaland and him are the three most dominant players on the planet,” Javier Tebas, president of the League, recently celebrated.