La Liga chief hails Bellingham, optimistic about Barca's future

La Liga president Javier Tebas said on Thursday that Jude Bellingham is currently the best player in the world and insisted Real Madrid have the money to spare for the financial effort required to sign Kylian Mbappe.
The La Liga boss was speaking at the Financial Times Football Business meeting in London on Thursday where, among other topics, he discussed Bellingham's impact and Mbappe's possible arrival at the Spanish club.
"Real Madrid have had very good management, before, during and after the pandemic. Madrid have been earning an average of 30 million euros a year for the last ten years at least. I don't know what they are going to pay Mbappe, but knowing what Madrid are like, they are not going to have a problem paying him," Tebas told reporters.
"Real Madrid have taken off two big wage burdens in recent years, Eden Hazard and Gareth Bale. And then they have brought in players with not so high investments. They can sign Mbappe".
"The one who is doing well we can't limit him. According to the data from January, Madrid could invest 700 million euros in squad. He's not going to spend that by any stretch of the imagination, but his situation is so good that he could go that far," added Tebas, who was quick to praise Bellingham after his first half of the season.
"Bellingham is the best player in the world at the moment, in terms of his form and the way he plays. He's a spectacle. If we are all honest, he has exceeded everyone's expectations and we hope he continues like this for many years to come," he said.
He denied that Barcelona are going to become a new Ajax, remaining a team that produces great players but cannot keep them, and reiterated that the Catalan side will get out of this situation.
"It's just not going to happen," Tebas told a group of journalists, including 'EFE'. "Barcelona will get out of the situation they are in. They have options to take when their leaders decide to take them if they are the ones they believe will provide solutions.
"They have two or three top players that they can sell. They sell them and with that they solve a large part of the programme. With that they can generate income that does not generate interest on debt and with that they can pay players," said the president.
"Barcelona is a club that earns almost a billion. It is not going to become like that. That's for sure. But, like many clubs, it is going through a complicated situation. As far as I know they haven't been knocked out of the Champions League and they can still win the Spanish League. We shouldn't be so catastrophic with Barcelona."