Jude Bellingham shows true colours as Jamie Gittens sent Chelsea debut message

Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham has shown support to new Chelsea signing Jamie Gittens after he made his Stamford Bridge bow. The Blues' summer arrival featured in their pre-season friendly against Bayer Leverkusen with Enzo Maresca's side dispatching the German club in a 2-0 triumph.

The England talent made the switch from Borussia Dortmund at the beginning of July, returning to England for the first time since 2020 when he swapped Manchester City for Signal Iduna Park. Gittens netted 17 goals and provided 14 assists in 107 appearances for Dortmund before making the switch worth over £50million.

Gittens has been handed the number 11 shirt and celebrated his 21st birthday with a cameo after he replaced Tyrique George shortly after the hour mark.

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He marked his landmark birthday with a post on social media expressing delight at making his Stamford Bridge bow.

"Blessed to make my debut at the bridge today especially on my birthday," he wrote.

"Jesus thank you for letting me see another year."

Bellingham sent birthday wishes and liked the Instagram with a host of his Chelsea teammates as well as Premier League rivals with new Liverpool signing Hugo Ekitike among them.

Brazilian duo Estevao and Joao Pedro netted on their first appearances SW6 to brush aside Erik ten Hag's side.

Maresca said: "Very happy with the performance, especially after three, four days just training together.

"And it’s good to start again [but] it’s the first time [for this] so we don’t know the answer.

"You know, it’s complicated. We arrive here and we start three days ago, four days ago, and we already start like we never finish — like a normal week.

"You cannot do ‘preseason’ — you don’t have time. We have another game now, Sunday, and then we start official game.

"But it’s very complicated. Sports scientist, doctor, me - we don’t know. We don’t have the answer because it’s the first time, and we don’t know."