Julien Laurens firmly believes that as brilliant a talent as Jude Bellingham is, Rodri is still in a league of his own.
As ESPN named the Real Madrid superstar as the best central midfielder in the world over the £62.8 million (Independent) man, the French journalist and pundit was not best pleased with this decision.
According to Julien Laurens, Rodri is quite clearly the superior player to Jude Bellingham, as things stand.
Julien Laurens says Rodri is still miles better than Jude Bellingham
Branded as ‘phenomenal’ by Danny Murphy, the Manchester City lynchpin seemingly cemented his reputation as the best No.6 in the world last season.
To cap an incredible personal campaign off, the Spanish international came up clutch to score a sublime winner in the Champions League final against Inter Milan to seal his side’s historic treble.
While Jude Bellingham is widely viewed as a generational talent, Julien Laurens believes Rodri is a superior midfielder than him by some distance.
“Yeah, I think Rodri, who’s our No.2 should be No.1. I’m really sorry, I love Jude Bellingham, the talent, the youth, the future, anything you want, the versatility, such a great all-rounder he is, but right now, no manager, no one would not pick Rodri ahead of Jude Bellingham.”
Rodri is most certainly the superior midfielder
Julien Laurens is spot on, as every possible criterion gives Rodri the edge over Jude Bellingham.
The argument that many would use to side with the Englishman is the perception that he is much more complete than the latter.
However, that could not be further from the truth, as Rodri is significantly better than Jude Bellingham in deeper areas, being an expert at running the tempo of a game, having much more variety to his passing as well as being streets ahead defensively.
Bellingham perhaps pips the treble-winner in terms of his ball-carrying ability and his threat in the final third but after all, the 26-year-old is only a defensive midfielder.
As things stand, Rodri might just be the best midfielder on the planet.
