“This is your stage, go and flourish,” Declan Rice told a teenaged Jude Bellingham as the midfielders waited in the tunnel in Doha before England’s opening game of the 2022 World Cup. “I’ll be there behind you to sweep up and give you the ball for you to go and do your thing.” Bellingham did do his thing, opened the scoring and excelled throughout England’s 6-2 win over Iran. He’s England’s most important player and most scrutinised.
If England are to progress far at the next World Cup, they will need Bellingham at his best and with his ferocious fire focused for the good of the team, not burning others. The current debate around England is whether the prodigy has become a fire-starter.
Bellingham currently undergoes rehab following shoulder surgery, and England desperately missed his powerful, well-timed surges into the box and inventive passing during Saturday’s disappointing 2-0 win over Andorra at Villa Park. Against Serbia in Belgrade on Tuesday, England will miss Bellingham doing his thing, dominating games with his technical and physical strengths, with his huge personality and will to win and with a “football brain” extolled by Graeme Souness, a pundit not given to easy praise. Eberechi Eze’s performance at 10 at Villa Park lacked the belief and menace that the marauding Bellingham brings.
Watching Bellingham is to appreciate echoes of Michael Ballack, the Germany great, in the way he crashes the box, or of the similarly tall Zinedine Zidane, the France legend, in his ability to combine acrobatics and audacity in meeting an aerial ball. Bellingham’s overhead kick against Slovakia at Euro 2024 rescued England in spectacular style. “Who else?” Bellingham mouthed to the joyous England fans in Gelsenkirchen.
Bellingham is not short of a confidence that some believe spills into arrogance. This is, after all, the player who announced himself at 16 in the second tier of English football by executing a Maradona turn, changing direction by rolling his foot over the top of the ball. Bellingham was at Birmingham City, and his stellar talent took him to Borussia Dortmund and then on to Real Madrid. His prolific first season at the Bernabéu even brought comparisons with Zidane, whose No. 5 shirt number he confidently took.
Bellingham is a phenomenal player with that elite mindset of relentlessly demanding high standards of himself, officials and team-mates. It is this attitude that is increasingly questioned; after no bookings in his first 25 England appearances, he has seven in 19, ever since joining Real.
Has his swagger strayed into petulance? Is it a sense of entitlement that comes with the Real shirt? Or is it simply the rage that fuels those at the top? Inner rage is good driving competitors on. Outer rage, manifested in dissent to officials, is damaging. Bellingham still learns to balance the two.
Some of his critics argue that he is a problem for England. Many of the long-suffering fans simply counter that England have far more of a problem without his edge. He’s a winner.
England’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, an intelligent German given to directness, intensified the debate. “Jude’s edge needs to be channelled towards the opponent, towards our goal (aim) and not to intimidate team-mates or to be over-aggressive towards team-mates or referees,” Tuchel told talkSPORT.
A counter-argument came from Morgan Rogers, Bellingham’s friend from England age-group days and growing up in the West Midlands. “I don’t think he intimidates us,” Rogers told BBC Radio 5 Live. “It’s just his will to win, his heart, what it means to him, the player he is and the person he is. He just wants to win and do well all the time. And when that doesn’t happen, maybe his frustrations will show a bit more than others. I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem or an issue. He’s a leader and is an example for us.”
Growing up, Bellingham was known for his politeness, humility and academic effort (good GCSEs and a BTEC at Loughborough College) as well as his sporting prowess.
It's hard to believe headlines about Bellingham being a problem within the dressing-room when he’s part of the leadership group and knows many of the players well. Bellingham first pulled on an England shirt at 13, for the Under-15s, building friendships with Rogers, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Tino Livramento. He got to know Levi Colwill with the Under-16s and Eze, Marc Guéhi, Bukayo Saka, Curtis Jones and Reece James as a 17-year-old with the Under-21s.
He’s respected because of his talent and achievements to date, and because of his demanding nature. He wants to win. Tuchel’s predecessor, Gareth Southgate, is a good judge of character and had no hesitation in making Bellingham a member of the England leadership group with Rice, Harry Kane and Kyle Walker.
Many remarkable numbers accompany Bellingham’s career already: five major trophies, transfer fees totalling £109.2 million ($147.5 million), three countries lived in, 15 appearances at three international tournaments, six goals and 11 assists in 44 England caps, and the fact that 35 players have made their England debut since he did. The most remarkable number of all is 22. Bellingham’s age. Amidst the frenzy around Bellingham and his edge, it’s worth remembering that he’s still so young. He’s still maturing.
By 22, Wayne Rooney had been sent off for a petulant stamp at the 2006 World Cup, served two suspensions, and needed David Beckham’s intervention in Belfast to prevent a meltdown becoming a dismissal. Rooney matured. So will Bellingham.
After that special goal against Slovakia, Bellingham marched into the media conference to reflect briefly on his man-of-the-match performance. He was noticeably prickly. It transpired that Bellingham was unhappy with press scrutiny of relatives back home. He has a tense relationship with the English media reflected in occasional critical headlines. It’s partly because there’s little relationship with a player who moved abroad young. Players like Alan Shearer, Steven Gerrard and Marcus Rashford had support because we had a relationship with them, lines of communication and understanding of what they might be going through.
The distance is also because Bellingham’s famously protective father Mark, a former policeman and prolific non-League forward, is himself combative with sections of the media. The Bellingham family is learning to deal with fame. A chat with David Beckham might help.
The stand-off between media and player is sad. Bellingham should be more celebrated. There should be more pride that a young Englishman is acclaimed at Real. The situation was not helped when Tuchel, speaking in his second language, accidentally used the word “repulsive” to describe his mother’s view of some of Bellingham’s on-field behaviour, particularly towards officials. It whipped up a huge media storm, most of it hurtling towards Bellingham. Tuchel immediately apologised to Bellingham for using the wrong word. But few observers stopped to consider how often such behaviour actually occurred.
Any serious debate about Bellingham’s rage needs analysis of his seven bookings with England.
No 1: for some pushing and shoving with Scotland’s Jack Hendry in a game when Bellingham was fouled regularly. No 2: he was again targeted, this time by Brazil, and eventually responded with a late challenge on Bruno Guimarães. No 3: a sliding tackle, getting the ball first but bringing down Slovakia’s Lukáš Haraslín. No 4: a late challenge on the Netherlands’ Stefan de Vrij. No 5: dissent after not getting a corner against Greece in Athens. No 6: dissent again, this time against the Irish at Wembley. Bellingham still delivered a hat-trick of assists. No 7: a late challenge on Latvia’s Dimitrijs Želenkoc that England disputed, before he was then subbed by a concerned Tuchel following a challenge on Raivis Jurkovskis that could easily have brought a second yellow.
Two bookings for dissent in 50 hours of international football hardly signals a one-man campaign against officialdom. But Bellingham has twice received suspensions for railing against referees in La Liga. It’s rooted in frustration (maybe partly to do with the shoulder) and Bellingham will learn it’s counter-productive, especially when sitting in the stands. Rooney had to control his temper, and channel that energy. Gerrard had to learn how to tackle with precision not venom. It’s part of growing up.
The 22-year-old even lost composure tackling Rice when Real played Arsenal. And Rice is a huge supporter of Bellingham the player and person. Bellingham has to learn how to play on the edge without going over it. But let’s not forget what a fabulous player Jude Bellingham is when he goes out there and does his thing—and how young he still is.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why England Need Jude Bellingham To Balance Swagger and Petulance.