Jude Bellingham has been tipped to become more marketable than Cristiano Ronaldo (Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
A football finance expert has predicted that England's Jude Bellingham and his girlfriend Laura Celia Valk could surpass Cristiano Ronaldo in marketability. Bellingham has enjoyed a dream season since signing for Real Madrid last summer.
Bellingham, who scored a stunning overhead kick against Slovakia to keep England in Euro 2024, won La Liga and the Champions League during his first year in Spain. Off-the-pitch, the 21-year-old midfielder is dating PrettyLittleThing model Valk, known as Laura Celia on social media.
This combination of on-pitch success and increasing fame has led some to suggest that the former Birmingham City player could become more valuable than Ronaldo, currently the world's highest-paid athlete with a net worth of £203m ($250m). Bellingham has endorsement deals with the likes of Lucozade and McDonald's, giving the England international a £39m ($50m) net worth, but this figure has been tipped to sky-rocket in the future.
"Bellingham has the potential to exceed Ronaldo and Messi in terms of marketability," Dr Rob Wilson, a Professor of Applied Sport Finance, told Saxo. "If we had this conversation in 10 years' time and Bellingham continues his trajectory with Real Madrid, then I think he will surpass Mbappe considerably.
"We talk about Messi and Ronaldo in relatively balanced terms - there is a debate over who is the better player and who has achieved more - I think Bellingham will exceed what Mbappe can do," Wilson added. "His age and the fact he has only just got to Real Madrid, is massively stacked in his favour.
"I think his image and his authenticity make him hugely marketable, whereas Mbappe does not have that. Whether it is because he has played in France or the fact he played in Messi's shadow, I just don't think he has the brand activation that Bellingham could have."
Crisitano Ronaldo is the world's highest-paid athlete (Image: Getty)
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His girlfriend Laura Celia boasts more than 500k Instagram followers and is a creative business graduate from the Amsterdam University of Applied Science. Valk founded Bobby Rose Agency – a content and consultancy company – and is represented by the Manchester-based Four Models agency.
Bellingham is already familiar with the world of fashion through his ties to Adidas and Louis Vuitton, as well as Kim Kardashian's SKIMS. According to Dr Wilson, Bellingham and Valk's relationship could see the couple replicate Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's earning power in the future.
"Bellingham is quite similar to Travis Kelce in that way with Taylor Swift, there is an alignment and exposure," he told Saxo. "From a brand alignment, it would be interesting to see if they ever do any co-activation, where they are both involved in promotion, but there will be a lot of off-field work as well. There will also be a natural increase in the level of exposure to brands like PrettyLittleThing as a result of the indirect association.
"The really smart commercial people will be looking at that and thinking, 'PrettyLittleThing is a really well thought of brand, as are Real Madrid, there might be a chance of some co-activation'. It could be worth millions for Bellingham and Real Madrid."
