Bellingham likened to world-class striker and tipped for Champions League glory

Former Real Madrid midfielder Christian Karembeu heaped praise upon the England star, whom he hopes will fire Real Madrid to Champions League glory this season.

Bellingham has shone since moving to the Bernabeu from Borussia Dortmund in the summer and is Real Madrid's top scorer with 18 goals in 27 games in all competitions.

His fine form saw him win the Golden Boy trophy in November, just a month after he was named as the world's best young player at the Ballon d'Or awards.

His club currently top La Liga and Bellingham will undoubtedly be key to England's chances of winning the European Championships this summer too, under the watchful eye of Gareth Southgate.

Karembeu, who is now the sporting director at Olympiacos, has been impressed by Bellingham's maturity.

Read More in Bellingham

Real Madrid vs Atletico: Bellingham and co bid to avoid suffering derby defeat hat-trick

Bellingham makes young Madrid fan's day after showing major respect to Getafe

He believes the 20-year-old will be key to the club's chances of winning another Champions League trophy this season.

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Karembeu said: "I hope he will continue. He's one of the top scorers in Europe and in the world.

"I hope Jude Bellingham will continue his pathway because he has

shown his skills in the Bundesliga. He's now in La Liga. We are very happy that he can do that at Real Madrid and hopefully, he will do the same when he comes to the England team.

"You can also mention Kylian Mbappe at that age who was also so mature. I think the new generation are very mature because they have also been away from home.

Most read in Champions League

Heartwarming moment Pep Guardiola realises he first met Micah Hamilton as a ball boy

Mourinho predicted Man United downfall with iconic 12-minute press conference rant

Man United would still be a Champions League club if they didn't mess up one transfer

EA FC 24 RTTK upgrade tracker, including Erling Haaland and Bukayo Saka ratings

"He was in Germany trying to challenge himself in another country and another culture. Every time you go away home, you enrich yourself.

"Now, the performances in Madrid don't surprise me because he has done that in the Bundesliga with Dortmund. So, now, the best result is to come [to Madrid] and I hope he will be a Champions League winner."

Jude Bellingham showed Getafe major courtesy then made young Real Madrid fan with cancer's day

Karembeu was speaking to talkSPORT at the City Ground at a landmark conference organised by Nottingham Forest, The Weatherhead Center at Havard University and the

LilianThuram foundation.

The conference aimed to tackle the issues of racism and gender equality in football.

In his position at Olympiacos, he also works closely with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis whom he praised extensively.

"First of all, he [Marinakis] is a brilliant entrepreneur. He's a self-made man [and] a great individual [and] great father, because I know the family," Karembeu finished.

"You can see that he tried to implement his vision [and] his values in sport and he knows that sport can give a solution maybe to our society where we can tackle racism, because he's also passionate

about sport [and] football and that's why he has Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest.

"There's an urgency to not only talk, but act to tackle racism and many [forms of] discrimination."