da bet7： Jude Bellingham has been sensational since joining Real Madrid but he's not the first high-profile player to hit the ground running at a new club
da gbg bet： Jude Bellingham has made the Santiago Bernabeu his home. The English midfielder bagged the winner against Getafe last weekend, and raised his arms in celebration before 90,000 adoring fans, most of whom joined in a rousing — if rather cliched — rendition of 'Hey Jude' as Los Blancos saw out the game.
Bellingham has only been in the Spanish capital for two months, but already looks like one of the best acquisitions in recent memory. These assertions are, of course, slightly hasty. A lot could go wrong from here. But this is a 20-year-old who has taken Zinedine Zidane's number, and lived up to the shirt. That is not an easy thing to do.
Of course, he is not the only player in recent memory to hit the ground running at a massive club. Some of the best teams in Europe have relied on new faces to bring about success.
As we've previously seen with the signings of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson that carried Liverpool to back-to-back major trophies, or the extra edge that Erling Haaland brought a Man City side that so badly coveted a Champions League title, newcomers can – and indeed have – made an immense impact from day one.
But who has made the biggest splash for a top side? And how far, exactly, have they carried their team? GOAL looks at the 10 most impactful signings of the last 10 years…
Getty ImagesDiego Costa (Atletico Madrid to Chelsea, July 2014)
With Demba Ba leaving the club and Didier Drogba entering the twilight of his career, Chelsea needed a centre-forward to lead the line ahead of the 2014 season. Their response was to go out and get one of Europe's best. They paid the £32m ($40m) release clause set on Costa, and placed him into their starting XI from day one.
The results were impressive. Although he was bugged by a hamstring injury in the early goings of his Chelsea career, Costa made an immense impact. He scored on his debut, and bagged seven in his first four.
By November, he hit double digits, and although he saw his progress stunted by an injury picked up in -late April, Costa finished his debut season with 20 goals – and the highest goal-per-90 minutes tally of his career. His contributions were, in effect, the reason Chelsea won a final Premier League title under Jose Mourinho.
AdvertisementGettyLuis Suarez (Liverpool to Barcelona, July 2014)
Suarez had wanted to leave for Arsenal at the end of the 2012-13 season, before being convinced by the Liverpool hierarchy to stay for at least one more campaign. Of course, he would end up having arguably, at that point, the best attacking seasons in league history, scoring 31 times in 33 starts – leading Liverpool to an unexpected second-placed finish.
His departure, then, was inevitable. And he wasn't bad in Catalunya, either. Suarez was the striker that Barca needed, and became the final piece of the formidable 'MSN' trio that tore through Europe for three years.
In his suspension-shortened debut season, Suarez scored 25, assisted 19, and finished the campaign with three trophies – including the Champions League. Messi, inevitably, took all of the plaudits for Barca that year. But Suarez's stream of goals in the second half of the season carried the Blaugrana to countless vital wins.
He is now regarded one of the game's greats – all thanks to a prolific spell in Catalunya.
GettyN'Golo Kante (Caen to Leicester, August 2015)
Who would have thought that the driving force behind Leicester's 2016 Premier League win would be an unassuming French midfielder bought from a struggling Ligue 1 side? Kante was a relatively unheralded signing from Caen, and Leicester forked over a meagre £5.6m ($7.0m) for his services.
Now, one could easily argue that it was the greatest bargain buy in Premier League history. Kante was originally purchased as a replacement for veteran defensive-midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, whose departure made Leicester one of the favourites to go down.
Instead, Kante anchored a formidable midfield, his constant running and defensive nous allowing Mahrez and Jamie Vardy to run riot up front. Without Kante, one of the best stories in football history remains unwritten.
Getty ImagesN'Golo Kante (Leicester to Chelsea, August 2016)
Leicester fans were devastated to see Kante leave after they won the Premier League in 2016. But his departure was inevitable. Big clubs were swirling, and Chelsea simply offered too much for the Foxes to refuse, shelling out £32m ($40m) for his services.
Chelsea presented a different challenge for the Frenchman, though. Indeed, it is one thing to boss the midfield for underdogs. Doing so for a team constantly at the top is another challenge altogether. But it was a task that Kante made light work of.
He formed a formidable midfield duo alongside Nemanja Matic for Antonio Conte's restructured Chelsea, functioning as a key cog in a 3-4-2-1 formation that tore through the Premier League. He finished his first campaign in London with a Premier League winner's medal and would go on to add a Champions League to his trophy cabinet three years later, cementing him as an all-time great.