Carlo Ancelotti suffers a joke from Jude Bellingham: “I called him and he didn’t answer”

Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti joked about a situation he experienced on Saturday when he called Jude Bellingham to ask about his fitness and the English midfielder did not answer his coach’s call but did answer his teammate Vinícius Junior’s.

“We are in contact,” Ancelotti admitted when asked about the seven players in his squad who have not yet joined the pre-season for the North American tour and will do so this week in the Spanish capital. “Yesterday I got angry with Bellingham because I called him and he didn’t answer. I told Vinícius to call him and he answered,” the Italian coach revealed with a laugh.

Ancelotti praised the physical level with which Vinícius Junior has returned, convinced that it will be the same as that of the six players who are still on vacation after the Euro Cup and Fede Valverde after playing the Copa América.

“Vinícius played his last match on July 6, a month ago. He rested for 15 days and then started working. Now it’s not like when I was a player, when I spent a month without doing anything and arrived fat. He’s fine, he’s back in shape and needs minutes,” he said.

In his case, ‘Carletto’ acknowledged, what he needs is time to work with his entire squad from Wednesday, when he will be able to count on all his players upon his return to Madrid.

“When everyone returns we need to work together and create an atmosphere before the first match,” he said. He will have less than a week before the European Super Cup against Atalanta on 14 August.

“I can assure you that we will compete with the squad we have. We can fight for the seven titles. The calendar is very demanding but we have the quality to compete for everything, that is what the club demands,” he said.

“The Champions League winners will have to play in the Super Cup. Two are missing, Kroos and Nacho. We’ll see who will replace them,” he added, acknowledging that many of the players who will join later will be starters.

Before that, he will face the last pre-season test on Tuesday, against Chelsea. “We will continue with the same line, they are pre-season matches, we have to evaluate the individual condition of the players and we are going to give more minutes to Vinícius,” he said.

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