Why Jude Bellingham’s world is bigger than most of us can understand

There has never been an English footballer quite like Jude Bellingham. He has the cockiness and explosiveness of a teenage Wayne Rooney and the vision of Paul Scholes, but that doesn’t come close to covering it. There are endless layers to Bellingham, the boy who has it all. He can be the No 8, the No 9 or the No 10. He has the flair of a Glenn Hoddle and the chest-out bravado of Paul Gascogine, but he also has the bravery of Bryan Robson, the rampaging qualities of Steven Gerrard and, as Mexico discovered at the Estadio Azteca, the ability to morph into the world’s best defender and drag his team out of the mire with a goal-saving challenge.

More? Bellingham has film-star looks, can charm like David Beckham and, given how much he has achieved, does not sound ridiculous when he says his post-retirement ambition is to play James Bond.

The 23-year-old’s world is bigger than most of us can begin to understand. He made his debut for Birmingham City when he was 16 and was so good they retired his shirt number. He was outstanding on his tournament debut for England, scoring against Iran at the last World Cup. He is a European champion with Real Madrid and, because of his precociousness as a teenager, can leave you thinking he is wise beyond his years.

Perhaps that has made us expect too much from him. There are times during games when he can infuriate his fans. He flew out of the traps at Euro 2024, thundering in a header when England beat Serbia in their opening game, but consistency eluded him. The big moment, the “Who else?” overhead kick against Slovakia, came at the end of an otherwise poor performance from Bellingham, who often struggled to hide his frustration on the pitch and sometimes appeared not to be on the same wavelength as the team’s other big players.

But Bellingham was 20 at the start of that tournament – his birthday is 29 June. He was a kid, albeit one with the world at his feet. The problem, if that is the right word, is that from the outside there appeared to be contradictions to his character. Here was a megastar who oozed intelligence in interviews with English broadcasters after Madrid’s Champions League games. He was insightful, engaging and capable of razor-sharp tactical analysis, and yet he also remained slightly unknowable. Bellingham is distant from mainstream written media, has spent much of his career outside England and came across as an unsympathetic figure at Euro 2024 whenever he tried too hard to be the hero or wasted energy on arguing with referees.

It turned into something of a PR crisis, fuelled by Thomas Tuchel’s infamous “repulsive” comment last year. Perhaps some of us misunderstood Bellingham’s personality. For a while I worried there was a risk of him holding England back. Looking back, I misjudged Bellingham. Although it is true that Tuchel wanted to establish a hierarchy that had Harry Kane and Declan Rice as the leaders of England’s dressing room, it was a mistake to think it would be productive to attempt to change Bellingham’s nature.

The point is that ego is part of what makes him different and special. It does not, however, come close to making him a bad person or a bad teammate. It is not only Jordan Henderson who says Bellingham is a great kid. There are plenty of stories about him from people with no skin in the game who say how brilliant he is when he meets an awestruck young fan.

But there are times when you see Bellingham struggle to contain that enormous will to win. He has been inspirational at this World Cup, scoring four goals in five games, but he almost boiled over when England were 1-0 down to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last 32. Bellingham does not really do stoicism. Part of the fascination is the nuance. Here we have a massive patriot who somehow manages to come across as quite un-English in how much he wants to win, how much adversity fires him up and how much he wants you to know that he really is the main character.

Watch Bellingham and you will see someone with zero interest in pretending he is anything other than a genius. Try to compare him to another athlete and the one who most comes to mind is Novak Djokovic, another one who can smile and charm a crowd but also turn into a pantomime villain or transform into something terrifying and unstoppable when confronted with someone who isn’t rooting for him. You want the other guy to win? Too bad, because I’m going to beat him.

That Djokovic streak was evident in the way Bellingham relished walking into the Azteca bearpit when England faced Mexico in the last 16 on Sunday. He ran to the corner and stood with arms outstretched after scoring the first of his two goals. He wanted the crowd’s animosity because it brought out the best in him. This was pure aura; this was Bellingham letting everyone know there was no way he was losing this game.

Bellingham was immense on and off the ball against Mexico. During his rise there have been echoes of the tennis prodigy to him; the young star competing in an individual sport and forced to deal with the pressure of doing it alone. For England, the challenge has been harnessing that tendency to be a soloist, the yearning to be the match-winner, and make it an effective weapon in a team game. Tuchel has found the way forward. After a testy start to their relationship, he has given Bellingham clarity. He has understood this is a rare talent. He has his No 10.

How ridiculous the pre-tournament notion that Bellingham could possibly not be a starter looks now. He has been in storming form since the first game, when he sparked the surge against Croatia with a spectacular solo goal at the start of the second half, and was in all-action mode against Mexico.

There were the goals – the timing of the run to head in the first from a Bukayo Saka cross, the silky one-two with Kane for the second – but there was also the defiance. There was the heroic clearance to stop César Montes from equalising on the stroke of half-time. There were moments of outrageous skill and plenty of lung-busting runs as England held out with 10 men.

This is no soloist. Bellingham does it all for the team. He has made vital interventions on multiple occasions – there were crucial last-ditch challenges against Croatia and Ghana – and has been a galvanising force, summed up by him giving Djed Spence a pep talk after the maligned full-back’s impressive cameo against Mexico.

We are watching Bellingham become one of England’s leaders. He is still maturing and will not get everything right. There was a hilarious moment when Bellingham lost possession against Mexico and reacted like a toddler, repeatedly hitting the turf in exaggerated fashion, but that was because he thought he was on his way to scoring another stunner. It is part of the package. There is nobody quite as captivating wearing an England shirt. Expect another absorbing show against Norway on Saturday.