It says everything about Jude Bellingham, the second black English player signed by Real Madrid, that he is living up to the lofty standards set by his predecessor Laurie Cunningham.
Bellingham has contributed 11 goals in 10 games to the Los Blancos ledger since his British record £114 million move to Spain, and the England midfielder doesn't just look like a big cheese in La Liga already.
He is playing like a deity to the manada born, the king of his flock (in case you were wondering, 'manada' is Spanish for herd). At 20, his skill set is ridiculous: Athleticism, grace, power, tricks, intelligence and goals. Lots of goals.
He is following a path to the Santiago Bernabeu forged by Cunningham 44 years ago, when Europe's football landscape looked very different. If you never saw Cunningham play, you missed a treat because, like Bellingham, he had the lot.
In Black History Month, the multicultural elan of West Bromwich Albion's team of the late 1970s featuring their so-called Three Degrees – Cunningham, Cyrille Regis and Brendan Batson – is an essential reference point in English football's back catalogue.
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For those wondering where the collective moniker came from, back in the day the Three Degrees, a female vocal trio formed in Philadelphia 60 years ago, was once King Charles' favourite act in the charts.
And when the band toured the UK, they jumped at the chance of a photo opportunity with Ron Atkinson's own Three Degrees – as Cunningham, Batson and Regis were christened by fans – at the Hawthorns.
For pure football aesthetics, Cunningham was Albion's pick of the pops. Big Ron once said of him: “He glides across the floor - if he went for a run after it had been snowing, he wouldn't leave any footprints.”
When he started out at Leyton Orient, if Cunningham was late for training – and it happened more than once – he used to pay the fines out of his prize money for winning dancing competitions in clubs.
Where other players might spend their down-time in snooker halls or refuelling in other licensed premises, he would practise choreographed moves on the dance floor, often transferring the poetic balance and those twinkling feet to the pitch.
Laurie Cunningham was the first black English player to don the colours of Real Madrid (Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images)
Cunningham (L) formed part of the 'Three Degrees' at West Brom with Brendan Batson (C) and Cyrille Regis (MirrorPix)Big Ron's Three Degrees reached their pinnacle in a 5-3 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford in December 1978. Check out the footage on YouTube, admire ITV commentator Gerald Sinstadt's orgasmic appreciation of West Brom's football... and marvel at Cunningham's athletic perfection.
Batson, speaking to the BBC, recalled: "There was a whispering campaign about black players at that time, that they were lazy, lacked bottle, didn't like the cold and couldn't tackle - which was all rubbish.
"Now black players were coming to the fore. There was a real breakthrough, but it wasn't a topic of conversation between us at West Brom.
"Maybe at the time, we didn't realise the real impact we were making outside of our little bubble. But on later reflection we did; we were a visible presence and encouragement for other black players who aspired to make it in professional football.
"I know the black community took great pride in seeing the three of us being successful in the game.”
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The son of a Jamaican racehorse jockey, Cunningham was the first English player of any colour to join Real Madrid and he was a talent in high demand. When Marco van Basten left Ajax for AC Milan, one of the suitors pitching for his signature was Johan Cruyff.
Before Bellingham, other British players have followed him to Madrid - notably Gareth Bale, who won the Champions League five times among Real's cast of Galacticos, David Beckham, Steve McManaman and Michael Owen.
But Cunningham was the pioneer, living up to his £950,000 transfer fee (only Trevor Francis had moved for a bigger sum at that stage), delivering corners with the outside of his boot and leading Barcelona such a merry dance in El Clasico that even Catalan fans, who normally express their disdain for Los Blancos with a passion, applauded his dazzling slaloms down the wing.
Former Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque, Cunningham's former team-mate at Real, raved: “I don't think his qualities were any less than Cristiano Ronaldo.”
In the goldfish bowl of Madrid society, as Spain emerged from the shadows cast by General Franco's dictatorship, Cunningham discovered even the pre-social media era offered little respite from privacy.
During one of his injury lay-offs, he was spotted on a nightclub dance floor – where else? - with his leg in plaster, and his club hit the roof.
Amid the stamping hooves and bovine aggression of Vinnie Jones, Dennis Wise and John Fashanu, it is often forgotten that Cunningham won the the FA Cup as part of Wimbledon's Crazy Gang in 1988.
But it is a travesty that a player of his gifts should win only six England caps, and a tragedy that, 14 months later, he died in a car crash in Madrid at the age of 33.
For Bellingham, already on course for greatness at Real Madrid barely two months into his Spanish inquisition, the task is not to surpass Cunningham's pioneering exploits. Living up to those exotic standards would be a success in its own right.
And if the Three Lions qualify for their own Euro 2024 party by beating Italy at Wembley on Tuesday night, Bellingham will still have some way to go before he is revered as el gran queso on the cheeseboard of English exports to La Liga.
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