England star Jude Bellingham lost his cool during Real Madrid‘s chaotic derby defeat by local rivals Atletico as the midfielder launched a swearing tirade at an opponent.
Bellingham and Co came up short in the Madrid derby in LaLiga on Sunday, losing 2-1 in a game that saw Real reduced to 10 men and manager Jose Mourinho take aim at the referee in a remarkable press conference.
Three Lions’ World Cup star Bellingham started the game and made headlines in the second-half when he clashed with Atletico midfielder Giuliano Simeone.
Bellingham felt he had been fouled by the Argentina star, and appeared to think he had received a kick while on the floor.
The 23-year-old shot up, instantly confronting Simeone – who is the son of manager Diego.
Atletico midfielder Koke rushed over to try and cool things down, but Bellingham was furious.
Jude Bellingham (left) clashed with Giuliano Simeone (right) in an X-rated encounter during the Madrid derby
Bellingham appeared to shout, after a brief confrontation: ‘F*** you, f***ing p****’.
He had also clashed with Argentina and former Tottenham defender Cristian Romero in the first-half when the score was 0-0, with the centre back mocking Bellingham with a crying action.
After the game, meanwhile, Bellingham hunted down the referee to make his feelings known on his performance, shouting: ‘Two red cards, two, two.’ He then stormed off the field.
The incidents again highlighted Bellingham’s competitiveness on the pitch, which once split fan opinion and had Thomas Tuchel’s mother cringing.
England manager Tuchel said in 2025 on Bellingham’s attitude: ‘It needs to be channelled towards the opponent and towards our goal, not to intimidate team-mates or be over-aggressive towards team-mates and officials, but always towards the solution, towards winning.
‘He has the fire and I don’t want to dim this down. He should play with this kind of fire, but the fire comes with some attributes that can intimidate you, maybe even as a team-mate.
‘You sometimes see the explosion towards referees and the anger in his game. If he can channel this in the right way, and we can help him with this, then for sure he has the something we need and a certain edge that is hard to find.
‘He’s a nice kid, very open, very intelligent and he’s been very easy so far.
He also had a confrontation with Cristian Romero when the score was 0-0 in the first-half
‘I see it can bring mixed emotions. I see this with my parents, with my mum, that she sometimes cannot see the nice, well-educated, well-behaved guy that I see.’
Ultimately, Bellingham came out on the wrong side of the result, but his manager, Mourinho, went to the press conference with receipts.
Mourinho arrived with printed out photos which showed, in his opinion, a series of major calls missed by the referee.
‘We could save ourselves the press conference,’ an irritated Mourinho began. ‘Here they are (shows photos of the possible red cards), two clear reds. It would have been 50 minutes of 11 against nine. All I can do is hug my players, who gave everything, who produced a first-half full of class and personality. I prepared the match so we could win it in the second half.’
Rather than pick apart the performance of his players, which saw Dean Huijsen sent off, he focused in on the ‘poor’ performance of Ortiz Arias, a referee he does not believe is suitable for the biggest games.
‘The one who should be happy is the Refereeing Appointments Committee because the whole thing was very strange,’ Mourinho’s rant continued. ‘A week in advance, they already knew who the referee would be, when it used to be 24 hours before. A 41-year-old referee, who has never been an international, that won’t be top level.
‘The poor guy came here and couldn’t handle the pressure.
‘The pressure here is like something out of the 1980s. Trujillo, the VAR official, called him over for the first red and didn’t call him over for the second, which was even clearer. This Trujillo has a history with Real Madrid: last year in the Copa final, Osasuna, Girona…
Madrid boss Jose Mourinho was so livid at the refereeing performance he printed out fouls he felt were missed
‘If the poor referee has no experience, no stature for a derby, then this man is either under no pressure, or under a kind of pressure we know nothing about.
‘I would have liked to leave here with the win or without having to speak. I arrived here three months ago and you know I’m not usually one to go in this direction.
‘Two reds against Elche and we won. Two reds today, that’s already more difficult. It’s a referee with only small matches behind him and a VAR official who has a history.
‘Congratulations to the Refereeing Appointments Committee.’
