Two of the hottest properties in world football do battle on Wednesday night, when Enzo Fernandez and Jude Bellingham meet at Signal Iduna Park.
In the blue corner, Argentina World Cup winner Fernandez will be making his Champions League debut for Chelsea following his British record £106million move from Benfica last month.
While in the yellow corner, Bellingham will once again spearhead Borussia Dortmund’s midfield as he looks to further impress ahead of his own probable big summer transfer.
Fernandez and Bellingham could actually be lining up together next season, with Chelsea one of the clubs interested in signing the England star.
But on Wednesday night, they will go head to head, so how do they compare? Find out the verdict from Sportsmail‘s David Coverdale below…
Chelsea made £106million Enzo Fernandez the fifth-most expensive player ever in January
While Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham, 19, could move for an even larger fee this summer – and ahead of their meeting on Wednesday night, Sportsmail runs the rule over the star pair
EXPERIENCE
Bellingham is still a teenager but has already racked up an astonishing 161 senior appearances in club football. It is no wonder his Dortmund manager, Edin Terzic, describes him as ‘the oldest 19-year-old player in the world’.
He made his debut for Birmingham as a 16-year-old and played 44 games in his one full season with his boyhood club before moving to Germany.
For Dortmund, he has featured in 117 matches, including 23 in Europe, with all but two of those coming in the Champions League. Bellingham also has 22 England caps.
At 22, Fernandez is three years Bellingham’s senior but he has played fewer first-team games – 115 in total.
He made his River Plate debut aged 19 in the same 2019-20 season that Bellingham made his bow. Fernandez played 51 games for the Argentine side, and a further 33 matches on loan at Defensa y Justicia, before switching to Benfica last summer.
In his half a season in Portugal, he racked up 29 appearances, including nine in the Champions League. Fernandez, who has 10 caps for Argentina, signed for Chelsea last month and has featured in their last two games.
HEAD-TO-HEAD WINNER: BELLINGHAM
Bellingham is far more experienced than Fernandez after breaking through at Birmingham
HONOURS
Fernandez already has the greatest honour in football to his name after winning the World Cup with Argentina last year, scooping the award for the tournament’s best young player in the process.
He also lifted Argentina’s Primera Division title with River Plate in 2021, as well as claiming both the Copa Sudamericana and Recopa Sudamericana during his loan spell with Defensa.
Bellingham, meanwhile, has fewer honours on his CV. He won the DFB-Pokal – the German Cup – with Dortmund in 2021 but has not yet landed anything bigger, having claimed a runners-up medal with England at Euro 2020.
HEAD-TO-HEAD WINNER: FERNANDEZ
But Fernandez has the edge in terms of silverware after winning the 2022 Qatar World Cup
ATTACKING ATTRIBUTES
Bellingham has netted 24 times in his club career and has 26 assists. This season at Dortmund, playing as the most advanced of three midfielders, he is their top scorer with 10 goals, is second for assists (six) and third for chances created (28).
He scored his first and only England goal at the World Cup, when he headed in the opener in the 6-2 win over Iran.
Bellingham also provided an assist in an outstanding attacking performance in England’s 3-0 last-16 win over Senegal and, in his team across the tournament, only Luke Shaw contributed to more open-play shot-ending sequences.
Fernandez’s goals-per-game ratio at club level is marginally worse, having scored 17 times. He has 20 assists, including one on his second appearance for Chelsea against West Ham last weekend.
Before he joined the Blues from Benfica, he ranked second in Portugal’s Primeira Liga for being involved in open-play shot-ending sequences, even though he was used as a holding midfielder.
At the World Cup, Fernandez scored a stunner to seal a 2-0 win for Argentina against Mexico and chipped in with an assistant against Poland. In the final against France, he had more touches and successful passes than any other player.
HEAD-TO-HEAD WINNER: BELLINGHAM
The English superstar is more of a box-to-box midfielder and provides more attacking prowess
DEFENSIVE ATTRIBUTES
Fernandez has proven his defensive credentials already in the Premier League.
Only Manchester United midfielder Fred has won more tackles than the Argentine in the last two league games. Fernandez has also won more duels than any other Chelsea midfielder.
In his five Champions League matches with Benfica earlier this season, he won seven tackles, attempted 3.8 tackles per 90 minutes and won 5.4 duels a game.
In comparison, in his own five European outings before Christmas, Bellingham won five tackles, attempted 1.6 tackles per match and won 5.6 duels a game, so there is little to separate the pair.
For Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Bellingham has won far more duels (225) and tackles (39) than any of his team-mates.
HEAD-TO-HEAD WINNER: FERNANDEZ
While the deep-lying playmaker Argentine edges out Bellingham in terms of defensive skills
OVERALL
Fernandez may be the £106m man, but Bellingham will surely smash that transfer record again should he return to England this summer.
The all-action Brummie has experience beyond his teenage years and is now adding more goals to his game, having been given the licence to push further forward by Dortmund.
While the pacey and powerful Bellingham is box to box, Fernandez prefers to pulls the strings from deep, so his numbers may never show his true worth.
There is no doubt Chelsea have made a fine acquisition in the Argentine, but the midfielder with the X-factor is the one they come up against on Wednesday night.
WINNER: BELLINGHAM
