Jude Bellingham On Playing With The Legend Toni Kroos | Jude Extras

It's a shame that I only got to play a year with Tony Cruz, really. I think the impact that he had on me as a player was huge. I was seeing him train every day, the techniques he used with the ball. You can always find me in them kind of spaces in behind or if it's the ball to feet and he's always willing to give you the balls just so you always feel involved. Because of how complete he is passing ranges, so intelligent as well. I think he's so unique as a footballer. I think he's the smartest player I've played with, technically probably the best as well. Also his mental approach to games as well, always so calm, always wants the ball, taking responsibility. He's not afraid to make mistakes. I think he's, for me, the perfect pro. You know, I think it's another thing that goes under the radar, how professionally he spends so much time and effort kind of making sure his body's at top condition. He's training, he's working on his technique, he's working on his quality, even though it's perfect. He continues to practice on his left foot and his right foot and then he comes in and then he does his gym work and then he's in the ice bath for as long as he needs to be. And it's just, it almost gives you no excuse because if a player who's won five Champions Leagues, a World Cup, however many league titles, still feels like they need to do all that, then I definitely do, do you know what I mean? So, perfect role model. Obviously, there's things that he sees that no one can see and there's things that he does that no one can do. He's so unique in that sense. So, to have the opportunity to have played with a player like that, you tell your kids about it, you tell all your mates and all your family members what he's like and they all want to know everything about him and stuff like that. So, I'm really grateful to have spent that time with him, not only on the pitch, but off the pitch as well. I feel like even though we have everything suggests that we should be so different and almost not get on, we ended up having a really good relationship as well where we could speak about a lot of different things. He was one of the ones that was in the first batch of players that I met early. So, I got to know him pretty well straight away and obviously, he'd played in Germany before. So, we have that in common, speak about the Bundesliga and how he found certain players and teams in Germany and you just end up chatting like that and he asks about your family and how everything's going with that and if I'm settled here, right. He's the kind of character that won't force anything. So, if you kind of get on naturally, then you just get on naturally and you have a conversation, which is really nice. He appreciated my maturity in terms of the way we both see the game, but also the kind of bits of joking and banter that we like to have with each other about various things. I respect him so much as a person and as a player and it's a shame that he didn't stay, but obviously a huge career and one he can be very proud of.