Declan Rice vs Jude Bellingham
England team-mates since 2020, with Rice usually the deeper of the two, they changed clubs in the same summer for fees that could pass £100m and first met as opponents in April 2025.
By the Oddsivio teamLast reviewed Stats updated
Last season · club and country together · official matches
Who does what?
Last season, Jude Bellingham scored more goals while Declan Rice created more chances. They were level on pass completion, with assists too close to call.
Worth knowing: Declan Rice had 5,350 minutes to Jude Bellingham's 3,442 last season; the bigger sample is the steadier one.
What separates them
2 of 4 pass both our tests: a big enough gap, and sure enough to hold.
- Rice
- Bellingham
- Typical midfielders and forwards
- Goals per 90Bellingham led0.127 goals0.3915 goals
About 8 more goals over 30 full matches for Bellingham than Rice.
Held up next season: more than 9 in 10
- Chances created per 90Rice led2.1124 chances1.661 chances
About 15 more chances created over 30 full matches for Rice than Bellingham.
Held up next season: about 8 in 10
- Assists per 90Too close to call0.2213 assists0.166 assists
Not sure enough to name a leader.
- Pass completion share of passes completedLevel89%50%100%88%
Too small a gap against typical midfielders and forwards to name a leader. Pass completion depends a lot on role and team.
Per 90 = per 90 minutes played, so different minutes compare fairly.
Does it hold up?
Without penalties
Jude Bellingham still led (0.39 vs 0.12 per 90; 15 goals to 7).
How they play · volume, not a lead
Jude Bellingham tried far more take-ons (3.2 vs 0.7 per 90) and won far more duels (8.1 vs 3.5 per 90) last season.
Why this comparison
A month apart in 2023, two of England's most coveted midfielders were sold. Real Madrid announced Jude Bellingham's signing from Borussia Dortmund on 14 June, for €103m that the BBC put at £88.5m, a fee that could rise to about £115m with add-ons; on 15 July Declan Rice joined Arsenal from West Ham for a guaranteed £100m and £5m in add-ons, then a record for an English player. In 2024 Rio Ferdinand said Arsenal's players and fans had bought into Rice the way Real Madrid's had into Bellingham, "on a lesser scale probably".
Their clubs then met in the Champions League quarter-final of April 2025, for the first time since 2006. At the Emirates on 8 April, Rice, who had not scored a direct free kick in 338 club games, scored two in 12 minutes, the first player to do that in a Champions League knockout game, Opta said. A week later Bellingham said he had known Rice took set pieces such as corners well but had never seen him score free kicks like that. For England they have more often shared the work than competed for it: in 2022, with Bellingham 19, Rice said he told him to go and bomb on while Rice sat and defended for him.
Every number · last season
| RiceDeclan Rice | Stat | BellinghamJude Bellingham |
|---|---|---|
5,350 | Minutes | 3,442 |
67 | Matches | 50 |
77.77Star · 40 club games · as of 2026-10-22 | Current squad importance | 71.72Important · 40 club games · as of 2026-10-22 |
0.127 in total | goals per 90 | 0.3915 in total |
0.2213 in total | assists per 90 | 0.166 in total |
2.1124 in total | chances created per 90 | 1.661 in total |
0.846 in total | shots per 90 | 1.661 in total |
0.744 in total | take-ons tried per 90 | 3.2124 in total |
1.8105 in total | tackles per 90 | 2.493 in total |
1.164 in total | interceptions per 90 | 0.725 in total |
3.5207 in total | duels won per 90 | 8.1309 in total |
89% | pass completion | 88% |
Goals and assists are counted from match events; the other counts come from the provider's detailed match stats. Squad importance describes the current club role over its recent club-game window; it is independent of the comparison window.
Have they played each other?
They have faced each other twice, in the two legs of that quarter-final, both of which are in the list below. Arsenal won 3–0 at home and 2–1 in Madrid, and UEFA named Rice the player of the match both times. He went off injured after 80 minutes of the first leg, with the score already 3–0 after Mikel Merino's goal, and was replaced only in stoppage time of the second; Bellingham played every minute of both. At the Bernabéu Thibaut Courtois saved a Bukayo Saka penalty, a penalty given against Rice for a challenge on Kylian Mbappé was overturned after a video review, and the two England players squared up to each other in the first half, the Daily Mail reported. Their clubs never met while Rice was at West Ham and Bellingham at Birmingham City or Dortmund. For England, by 16 October 2026 they had played in the same competitive game 37 times and started 30 of them together, from EURO 2020, where Bellingham came on three times but did not get on in the final against Italy, to the 2026 World Cup. The list below leaves out the three EURO 2020 games, because our records do not yet include that tournament. England won 23 of the 37, drew eight and lost six, with the EURO 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland, won on penalties, counted as a draw. In those 37 games Bellingham scored ten goals and Rice three. Neither has set up an England goal for the other, and the only game in which both scored was the third-place game against France on 18 July 2026, which England won 6–4: Rice scored after three minutes and Bellingham, on as a substitute, deep into added time. Arsenal are due to host Real Madrid on 9 December 2026, on the sixth matchday of the Champions League league phase.
Looking up their matches…
What the numbers don't show
Our line-up data puts Bellingham in attacking midfield, which the card counts with the forwards, and Rice in central midfield, so the card pools them with all midfielders and forwards and judges them on goals, chances created, assists and passing; tackles, interceptions and duels sit underneath as volume, not as a lead. The card's 2025/26 window counts club and country, the World Cup included, and its minutes are lopsided: 5,350 in 67 games for Rice, 3,442 in 50 for Bellingham, who began that season recovering from shoulder surgery and lost almost two months to a hamstring injury from February 2026. In that window Bellingham won 8.1 duels and made 2.4 tackles per 90 minutes to Rice's 3.5 and 1.8, while Rice made 1.1 interceptions to Bellingham's 0.7.
Dead balls lift Rice's creative numbers. Both of his assists at the 2026 World Cup came from corners, and in ESPN's match records up to 16 October 2026 the two free kicks against Real Madrid are still the only direct free-kick goals of his career. Bellingham's goals come from further forward: usually England's No 10 behind Harry Kane, he scored seven at that World Cup, which the FA called a first for an England men's player at a major tournament. Rice carried the heavier load. He played 69 games for club and country in 2025–26, friendlies included, and in September 2026 he withdrew from England's squad after, in his words, an honest conversation with Thomas Tuchel and Mikel Arteta; ESPN reported that it was to manage his workload.
Estimated value
Declan Rice's Oddsivio estimated value is higher: €115m (#13 of 9,330 players valued) to Jude Bellingham's €106m (#18 of 9,330 players valued). Rice's estimate dipped 3% since season start; Bellingham's estimate rose 3% since season start.Oddsivio estimated value — a model estimate from recent performance data, not betting advice.
Declan Rice
Oddsivio estimated value
€115m
−3% since season start
#13 of 9,330 players valued#7 of 494 in the Premier League
Jude Bellingham
Oddsivio estimated value
€106m
+3% since season start
#18 of 9,330 players valued#5 of 501 in La Liga
Questions fans ask
Bellingham or Rice: who is England's best midfielder?
On the card at the top, a row gets a leader only when the gap is wide enough to be likely to hold. In the 2025/26 window that gives goals to Bellingham and chances created to Rice; over the two years to 17 October 2026 only the goals gap passes. Where both were on the ballot, Bellingham has finished higher. In England supporters' vote for the best player of the year, Bellingham won for 2024–25, with Rice second, and won again for 2025–26. In the Ballon d'Or Bellingham was third in 2024, when Rice was 26th, and in 2025 Bellingham was 23rd and Rice 27th; both are on the 2026 shortlist of 30, along with Harry Kane, and the result is due on 26 October. Rice's awards come from Arsenal and the Premier League, where Bellingham is not eligible: Arsenal's supporters have voted him their player of the season twice running, and the PFA has picked him in its Premier League team of the year for three seasons in a row. Tuchel, England's head coach, called Rice one of the very best midfielders in Europe in October 2026; of Bellingham's World Cup he said you could see what a competitor and what a machine he is.
Rice vs Bellingham stats: whose numbers are bigger?
Bellingham has scored far more. For Real Madrid he had 23 goals in 2023–24, 15 in 2024–25 and eight in 2025–26, on the club's figures; Rice had seven, nine and five for Arsenal, on ESPN's match data. Their assists are closer: Rice set up nine, ten and nine in those seasons, and Real Madrid credit Bellingham with ten, ten and two, though other providers count more. For England, by October 2026 Bellingham had 14 goals in 60 caps and Rice eight in 80. The card, which counts club and country in official games, gives Bellingham 15 goals and six assists in the 2025/26 window to Rice's seven and 13, and 34 goals to 15, with 27 assists each, over the two years to 17 October 2026. Of 2026–27, up to 16 October Rice had three assists and no goal in nine games for Arsenal; Bellingham had three goals and two assists in ten for Real Madrid, and a goal and four assists in four games for England.
Did Rice and Bellingham fall out?
There is no public sign of it. The talk of a feud comes from one night, the second leg in Madrid in April 2025: Rice knocked Bellingham over in the first three minutes, the referee waved play on, and the two squared up near the halfway line before half-time, the Daily Mail reported. The next day the Telegraph and the Mail both headlined it a battle of England's alpha males. Neither player has commented on it publicly in any report we found. Their public words about each other are praise. In September 2022 Rice called Bellingham, then 19, the future of English football for the next 15 years; after Bellingham's winner against Serbia at EURO 2024 he said he was just another level; and in October 2025, captaining England against Wales while Bellingham was left out, Rice said: "we do miss Jude, for sure." Bellingham, asked before that second leg whether Arsenal had surprised Real Madrid, said only Rice's free kicks had, and fair play to him.
How do Rice and Bellingham fit in England's midfield?
Usually with Rice behind Bellingham. Naming his provisional EURO 2024 squad, Gareth Southgate said England had no other player of Rice's type and that he had spent months asking himself who should play with him; in Germany both started every England game, and Rice played every minute. At the 2026 World Cup Bellingham played No 10 behind Kane in each of the six games they started together, with Rice one of the two deeper midfielders, each time beside Elliot Anderson, who set up Bellingham's goal in the opening 4–2 win over Croatia. Tuchel confirmed Rice as his vice-captain in June 2026, and Rice wore the armband in the third-place game. In the autumn, with Rice out of the squad, Bellingham finished three of England's four games as captain, and Tuchel, asked whether Bellingham could one day captain England full-time, said: "If you are the captain at the end of these matches you can for sure be the permanent captain." Kane remained England's captain.
When do Rice and Bellingham play each other next?
Real Madrid are due at the Emirates on Wednesday 9 December 2026, in the Champions League league phase, with kick-off scheduled for 20:00 UK time. By 16 October 2026 both clubs had won their first two games, Arsenal 1–0 at Napoli and 3–0 against Lille, Real Madrid 2–1 against Inter and 4–3 at Roma. It is the only game between them in the league phase, so a second meeting in 2026–27 is possible only in the knockout rounds. Before that they could be team-mates again: England are due to play Croatia at Wembley on 12 November 2026 and Spain in Madrid on 15 November 2026. Rice missed England's September and October games but started both of Arsenal's games after the break, on 10 and 13 October 2026.
What have Rice and Bellingham won?
Bellingham has won six senior trophies with his clubs, Rice four. Bellingham's are the German Cup with Dortmund in 2021; in 2023–24, his first Real Madrid season, La Liga, the Spanish Super Cup and the Champions League, in whose final he set up Vinícius Júnior's goal; then the UEFA Super Cup in August 2024 and the Intercontinental Cup that December. Rice lifted the Conference League as West Ham captain in 2023 and has won the Premier League with Arsenal, in 2026, and the Community Shield in 2023 and 2026. In 2025–26 Arsenal also reached two cup finals and lost both: the League Cup to Manchester City, and the Champions League on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain, with Rice scoring in the shoot-out. With England both were on the losing side in the EURO 2024 final; Rice also started the EURO 2020 final, which Bellingham watched from the bench; and both won bronze at the 2026 World Cup. Bellingham's individual awards include the 2023 Golden Boy and Kopa Trophy and LaLiga's best-player award for 2023–24; UEFA's technical observers named Rice the 2022–23 Conference League Player of the Season.