Sport
Bellingham’s breakout tournament
Certain football clubs will have entered this prolonged World Cup break with a strategy in mind. Tournaments are high time for players angling for a move to impress, and there have been a few in Qatar. But they can also be an ideal point for clubs who are looking to sell to set the wheels in motion.
One club who will be rubbing their hands together will be Borussia Dortmund. Their entire business model is based upon signing young, hungry and talented players who are destined to make it at an elite level, aid their development by trusting them and letting them flourish and reaping the rewards of a huge profit from an inevitable sale.
Dortmund have one of their brightest stars on the books right now. Jude Bellingham’s growth has been exponential since he joined from Birmingham City in 2020, and after the departure of Erling Haaland to Manchester City last summer, he is the next man in line for a move.
The clamour for his signature has been immense for some time – his ability to control and dominate matches in the Champions League has been shown once again this season. It must be remembered he is only 19, and that makes his performance in Qatar all the more impressive. England are benefitting; it has been known for some time just how good Bellingham could be, but nobody quite saw it coming this quickly.
It wasn’t just his header against Iran – his side’s opening goal at the tournament – but that showed the variety in his game. Bellingham is a tall, gangly midfielder but possesses the technique of a nimble playmaker. He can organise and dominate a midfield, and get goals too. He has always worn number 22, a shirt number Birmingham retired against much derision upon his departure at the age of 17, and that is no accident. It is to signify that he can is a number 10, number 8 and a number 4. The way he took that goal, and the role he has played in others, is proof of concept. Now, nobody is mocking his former club for that decision. It looks just about right.
England lost to France on Saturday in the quarter final of the World Cup, and all of the pre-match discourse surrounded Kylian Mbappe. That is hardly surprising, given that he has scored five goals at a tournament he probably came into as the best player in the world already. But he was where Bellingham is now back in 2018; his quality was undeniable even then, but it wasn’t until a game-changing performance in the last 16 against Argentina that the world truly sat up and took notice, before he wrote himself into history by becoming only the second teenager behind Pele to score in a World Cup final.
In England, everybody feared Mbappe. While it was proven incorrect given he didn’t score in the 2-1 defeat, the idea that stopping him stopped France was subscribed to by many. The view of him went beyond trepidation, but it is highly unlikely that Bellingham struck the same feelings into the French public and football fraternity despite the fact that, in his own way, he has been just as influential as Mbappe over the course of recent weeks.
Comparisons are becoming almost cliche in football these days, but one that is perhaps extremely pertinent when discussing Bellingham is Wayne Rooney’s impact at Euro 2004. Aged 18 that summer, Rooney had already proven himself in England with Everton, but he went into the tournament knowing his reputation was about to skyrocket. Four goals in the group stage saw it explode, and his metatarsal injury in the quarter-final against Portugal is one of the tragic sliding doors moments which mean England are still trophyless since 1966. That was there, and Rooney’s moment, but he had shown himself to be ready for the next stage.
Everton will have watched each goal go in and added five million to his transfer fee, knowing that they would have to sell eventually and their task was to maximise value. Dortmund are in a very similar boat ahead of next summer, and it isn’t out of the question that they could sell Bellingham for five times the fee they paid for him.
Despite what happened on Saturday evening, Jude Bellingham’s World Cup had all the hallmarks of a breakout tournament. There is no hype anymore only facts, truth and evidence; his time is now.
