Jude Bellingham's Real Madrid impact summed up by club legend going for sixth Champions League

On the eve of their Champions League second leg showdown with Bayern Munich, Dani Carvajal was the voice of Real Madrid for a reason.

Born in a suburb of the Spanish capital, he is two matches away from a SIXTH winners’ medal in Europe’s blue riband competition, having joined the club as a 10-year-old boy. Carvajal’s place in Bernabeu history is secure.

And at Real’s training centre on Tuesday afternoon, Carvajal spoke about the changing of the guard, about being a mentor for the young guns who are leading Los Blancos into a new era.

“I am one of the veterans and I try to be an example - a team-mate in whom they can see themselves reflected” said the 32-year-old defender. “Someone who they can chat with … who can try to ensure the young people do not derail.”

And, of course, leading those young people is Jude Bellingham, already looking like a certainty to follow Carvajal into Real’s hall of fame. Bellingham scored in his first game at the Bernabeu and his latest El Clasico goal - another late winner in a 3-2 home victory just over a fortnight ago - essentially clinched the La Liga title for Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

Ancelotti later said that Bellingham’s late strike at Barcelona earlier in the campaign had been one of the most crucial moments of Real’s triumphant domestic season. Carvajal and the senior players are determined not to be too effusive about England’s jewel in La Liga, the full-back recently saying: “We don’t want to deify him too much because the bar is too high … but he assumes the role of leader.”

And already, all around the Valdebebas training base and around the Bernabeu, the talk is of Bellingham being that leader long into the future. What the fanbase, his team-mates, former players and club officials are