Soccer-Bellingham voted LaLiga Player of the Season
(Reuters) - Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham has been voted LaLiga's Player of the Season after the 20-year-old played a pivotal role in leading the club to their 36th league title.

Bellingham edged out team mate Vinicius Jr, Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Artem Dovbyk (Girona) and Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) in votes cast by fans, club captains and a panel of experts.

He scored 19 goals and had six assists in 28 league games this season, and tallied 23 goals and 12 assists in all competitions for the club.

Bellingham, who could not attend Tuesday's ceremony in Sardinia as he was preparing for the Champions League final at Wembley against his former club Borussia Dortmund, said he was honoured to have received the award.

"I would like to dedicate it to my team mates, the coaching staff and, most importantly, to the fans of the best club in the world," he said in a message. "It's a pleasure every time I play for this team. Hala Madrid!"

The Englishman also won the 2022-23 Bundesliga Player of the Season playing for Dortmund before moving to Real for a fee of around 103 million Euros ($111.71 million).

Earlier on Tuesday, Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl was full of praise for Bellingham.

"I know how strong Jude is and I know his personality very much, so he's an amazing player, an amazing character and of course, he will do everything to win that final," he said.

($1 = 0.9220 euros)

(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
(Reuters) -     Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham has been voted LaLiga's Player of the Season after the 20-year-old played a pivotal role in leading the club to their 36th league title.