‘Pitbull’ Gallagher on course for duel with Bellingham in Madrid derby

There were 18,752 fans there the day the Valley celebrated its hundredth birthday and Jude Bellingham made his first league start, at 16 years and 77 days. Charlton were second in the Championship, unbeaten in six games, and had the chance to go top. But on a bad-tempered September afternoon in 2019 during which their coach, Lee Bowyer, was sent off for grabbing a spare ball that had been thrown on to the pitch, they were defeated 1-0 by Birmingham, and ended up being relegated that season.

It was Bellingham who scored the goal, of course, celebrating arms wide before the stands. “As the son of one of the most prolific strikers to have graced the non-league game, he should have learned a thing or two,” said the Observer’s match report.

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Already the youngest goalscorer in Birmingham’s history, 14 days earlier he had claimed the winner against Stoke; now he had another and a standing ovation. “He opted to stay in the Midlands after interest from Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City but looks capable of playing at the very highest level,” Ed Aarons wrote.

Bellingham has always stood apart but, it turns out, he wasn’t entirely alone. In the Charlton midfield was a 19-year-old Chelsea loanee also making one of his first appearances. That Saturday afternoon was the first time that Jude Bellingham and Conor Gallagher – England Under-21s teammates a year later and senior teammates since 2021 – faced each other. On Sunday, in front of 70,500 at the Metropolitano, it will be the fourth.

There were 24 minutes together when Birmingham lost 3-1 to Swansea in 2020 and 23 when Chelsea defeated Dortmund 2-0 in 2023; now for the first time in La Liga history, two Englishmen face each other in the Madrid derby.

They will be right at the heart of it too. A new arrival, exhausted at the end of his first two games, Gallagher has now played all 90 minutes of Atlético’s last three La Liga fixtures. Although the most recent, a last-minute victory at Celta Vigo, did not end until 11pm on Thursday, he should start.

So will Bellingham; after a muscle injury kept him out for a month, he has now begun their last three games, despite the continuing discomfort of a shoulder problem, and provided an assist for Kylian Mbappé on Tuesday. “Jude loves Madrid,” Gallagher told AS recently. “He’s enjoying life here a lot and doing incredibly at Real Madrid. We don’t talk too much about it but I know he’s happy I’m here.”

There’s a moment in Bellingham’s new documentary, filmed last year, in which he admits to feeling as if he had the Santiago Bernabéu in his hand. What he had done, he says, had not been done before. Signed from Borussia Dortmund for £103m, he scored in his first four league games and his Champions League debut. By Christmas he had scored 17. He got the winner in both clásicos, the league title was his, and he ended as a European champion. Only one team beat Madrid all year – Atlético. Thirty nine league games have passed since.

Gallagher’s first season in Spain surely can’t end the same way. But the last Englishman here, Kieran Trippier, won the league; having invested almost €200m (£166m) this summer some demand that Atlético compete for the title, and they are still unbeaten seven games in.

And Gallagher has become a fans’ favourite as fast as his countryman. “The new idol at the Metropolitano,” as Marca put it, the signing of the season according to AS. There was an immediate fondness for the player who landed in heat of August, when the city shuts down, only for his move from Chelsea to be put on hold, leaving him stranded during five days at the AC hotel in La Finca. Although his deal hadn’t been done, Gallagher still trained with Atlético; forced to return to London and wait, he didn’t back down either. Those were “stressful” days, he said. But “[Diego] Simeone told me: don’t worry, we’ll make sure we sign you. Just be ready.”

While Bellingham found support in Brahim Díaz and Joselu, soon becoming friends with Eduardo Camavinga and Vinícius Júnior too, a key man in the dressing room as well as on the pitch, Gallagher found César Azpilicueta waiting for him. “He’s the best,” Gallagher told Televisión Española; when they showed that clip to the former Chelsea captain, he laughed. “What else can he say? I translate everything for him,” the defender replied. “I think the only thing I haven’t translated is ‘score goals’ and he did that.”

Twice, in fact: the opener against Valencia and the equaliser at Rayo Vallecano, both taken superbly. No midfielder has more. Yet the warmth is not so much about Gallagher’s goals as his attitude and application, the feeling that he is the perfect Simeone player, landing at the ideal place. One detail not lost on fans is that Gallagher, like Bellingham, cuts holes in his socks to relieve the pressure on his calves, but the player nicknamed the Pitbull is careful to leave the “ATLETI” intact.

“Bellingham was born to play for Real Madrid,” Vinícius claimed last season and the same could be said about Gallagher and their rivals across the city. That day in 2019, Bowyer insisted: “Whatever you tell him, he does; his willingness and workrate are unreal,” and those are qualities valued at the Metropolitano. There is no better game in which to demonstrate them than the derby. “What people on the inside say is being confirmed,” said Kiko Narváez, the former Atlético striker who is close to Simeone. “Gallagher is a worker with Atlético DNA. I hope he’s happy and stays for years.”

There was a moment, not long after his goal against Rayo, that Gallagher suddenly sat on the turf and teammates came to him, worried the Englishman who gives them so much energy might have broken something. It turned out that he had: his hair band. He thought he couldn’t go running round the pitch like Tarzan so he had to tie it up somehow.

When Koke arrived on the scene and saw what was going on, the captain just laughed. And then, to throw the referee off the scent, made up something about a strain, giving Gallagher time to get up and running again. All the way to the 237th Madrid derby where, five years on, those kids from the Valley will be waiting to do battle once more.