EURO FILES: Jude Bellingham takes a leaf out of Cristiano Ronaldo’s book ahead of his first El Clasico… PLUS Mbappe helps PSG lay ghost of St James’ Park to rest

It was a case of the ‘calma before the storm’ this week when Jude Bellingham spoke to Spanish television ahead of Saturday’s Clasico.

‘I always remember Cristiano Ronaldo’s celebration telling everyone “calma, calma”,’ said the England midfielder of his memories of watching the fixture at home. Some Spanish words are easier to learn than others.

At 20, Bellingham will be the youngest player in a Real Madrid shirt on the pitch in Catalonia on Saturday, but in Alejandro Balde (20, but born four months later), Gavi (19) and Lamine Yamal (16), there will be three players his junior lining up for Barcelona.

It’s the Baby Clasico but grown-up Jude can dominate it because, as everyone in Spain has already worked out, he is mature well beyond his years.

Speaking to Mail Sport this week, former Real Madrid player and assistant coach Aitor Karanka recalled that when he moved to manage Birmingham City in July 2020 he studied the previous season’s games, and realised the club’s standout player was the one they had just sold to Borussia Dortmund.

‘How can you do that to me?’ he jokingly asked the club’s director general Xuandong Ren.

Karanka knew he was losing a huge talent and dressing room leader. ‘This is a kid who gets sold, and it was all agreed, but Birmingham still needed three points to secure safety and he (Bellingham) said that until the club is safe he was going to keep playing.

‘He was 17 years old at that point! Any other player, if Borussia Dortmund had come and put down the money for you, would say, “Thanks guys, I’m off”. When you see a young man think like that, you can only imagine what can happen to him when he also has everything as a footballer.’

Karanka won three Champions League titles at Madrid as a player, but says it is never plain sailing at the most demanding club in the world. After a 6-2 defeat at Valencia he was out with his mother when two people told him: ‘Que malo eres’ (‘you’re terrible’). His mother reacted to the slur by asking Karanka why he hadn’t responded.

‘I said, “What am I going to say, we let in six!” You have to know how to handle the fact that one day you are the best and the next day, they can insult you.’

It’s been all bouquets so far for Bellingham and if he comes out on top Saturday, they will be waiting for him back in Madrid with more. His cool head has been part of his success so far and for all that a simmering row between the clubs means the traditional pre-game meal is off the menu, out on the pitch there is very little of the animosity that has often marked the fixture.

‘It goes in cycles,’ says Karanka. ‘This is a Clasico with young players. Maybe they have a less of a feeling of what this game is yet.’

Bellingham knows what the game means because he was watching Ronaldo and his ‘calm down’ goal celebration back in 2012. The Portuguese forward had scored the winner in a 2-1 victory five games from the end of the season which all but assured Madrid would be champions.

Victory here would only open up a four-point gap over Barca with 27 games left. But it would be another marker laid down by the world’s best player in waiting.

Clasico weeks in Spain provide plenty of opportunities to speak to former Barca and Madrid players and Javier Saviola, who turned out for both clubs, was asked who he thought who would win next year’s Ballon d’Or.

The former Argentina striker said of Bellingham: ‘He can do so many different things. To win the Ballon d’Or you have to be very complete and I think he is.’

Mbappe helps PSG lay ghost of St James’ Park to rest

Euro Files’ bold claim that Paris Saint-Germain could win the Champions League looked daft after they were swept away by Newcastle three weeks ago, but Wednesday’s 3-0 win over AC Milan leaves them top of Group F at the halfway stage.

Luis Enrique started with the three-man midfield he strangely discarded for the trip to St James’ Park and 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery was brilliant in it.

Kylian Mbappe (right) was also on form against one of the teams he supported as a kid — it turns out he didn’t only wear a Real Madrid shirt when he was out playing with his friends. And even habitual hit-and-miss merchant Ousmane Dembele played well.

Perhaps the key for PSG this season is to not run away with Ligue 1 too early. They go into this weekend’s round of matches third and are not alone in facing a fight to defend their crown, because in none of Europe’s big five leagues do last season’s champions lead the way.

PSG have Brest on Sunday and then Montpellier on Friday before they visit the San Siro on November 7.

‘We will all be able to qualify right up to the last round of matches,’ said PSG head coach Luis Enrique.

Mourinho shuts down the idiots

Jose Mourinho is banned from Sunday’s visit to his old club Inter Milan and it’s hard to know if that is a good thing for him. 

When Stephan El Shaarawy scored a 90th-minute winner against Monza last week Mourinho celebrated in front of the visitors’ bench, shushing his rival coach and pretending to wipe away tears.

Mourinho said of the ban: ‘It has to be the same for everyone. I’ve seen other coaches make the same gesture I did or even worse.’ 

So he will be in the stands at the San Siro as his team visit the Serie A leaders.

Mourinho also said Inter, with the squad they have, should win the league by 20 points.

So is he better off out of the dugout? On suggestions he had picked up the red card deliberately, he said: ‘So many idiots have said idiotic things. I’m Roma coach, of course I want to be with my team.’

Super League verdict coming in December 

The European Court of Justice will announce on December 21 if UEFA acted lawfully when they threatened sanctions against the clubs trying to create a breakaway European Super League.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have walked hand-in-hand through this entire power grab but will not be talking about it on Saturday after the clubs’ traditional Clasico pre-match meal was called off. 

Rows over a Barcelona board member claiming Vinicius Jnr was not a victim of racism but a ‘clown who deserves a slap’, and Madrid being part of the prosecution seeking to punish Barcelona for paying a referees’ boss £6.3million across a 17-year period, have soured relations.