The creative midfielder is being aggressively pursued by Liverpool, as evidenced by their first goal against Senegal. It always seems to begin with England’s Jude Bellingham.
The first goal scorer for the Three Lions was back in action, this time collaborating with Jordan Henderson to score the team’s first of three goals against Senegal in the Round of 16. Bellingham set up his senior teammate for his first goal with a pass that shifted the momentum.
He charged forward and passed the ball back as Henderson showed blistering speed to deflect the ball into the goal. The tandem’s fluid, uncomplicated move set the tone for the remainder of England’s rather unusually stress-free knockout match. England’s second goal, which also put captain Harry Kane on the scoreboard, was a stub of Bellingham’s initial creative genius.
The sparking Bellingham pass came from deep in the middle of the field.
With Liverpool aggressively courting Bellingham to become the sharp edge of their midfield triad, Henderson shepherded him from behind as one of two holding midfielders, the goal by Henderson may even have raised hopes at Anfield.
However, Bellingham’s story is that of a one-of-a-kind non-Premiership England player who, as a young teenager, made his way back into English football after being camped out at Borussia Dortmund, where he plays in contrast to his teammates at Qatar.
Evening news.com reports that former midfielder Paul Ince has compared the 19-year-old to Patrick Vieira, Steven Gerrard, and even Roy Keane ahead of the Senegal match. Mike Dodds, his coach at Birmingham Academy, believed he was an all-rounder and doer, so his jersey number was changed to 22.
Ince extolled Bellingham’s distinctiveness while turning his nose up at Medios who remained restricted in “designated positions. “He plays like a true box-to-box midfielder. He reportedly stated, “He has all the attributes of a six, an eight, and a ten,” according to the evening news.
At Dortmund, Bellingham’s dearest companion is the American USMNT player Gio Reyna. Within “30 seconds” of the draw, which placed England and the United States in the same World Cup group, the two exchanged messages. Before their game, Reyna would tell the Guardian, “We have been talking some “smack,” but I love him.”
On the bus, we sit next to each other, and when we fly, we typically sit very close to each other. Simply put, they have a wonderful relationship. Both on and off the field, we truly benefit from one another.We will both be prepared for battle because he is an extremely skilled player.
However, the admiration extends to being amazed by Bellingham’s abilities. Reyna would tell Guardian, “His ability to be able to do everything sets him apart.” There are few things he cannot do that you can point to. He is an adversary.He is capable of everything.He could probably play left wing or left back if you asked him to. Even in the goal?Reyna would add, “Yeah.”
But Bellingham had a different set of worries when Southgate asked him to go to England in 2020, and they were typical of those of a teenager. He was mostly worried about whether he would “fit in.”
Bellingham would say to talkSport prior to the last-16 match:I was most concerned about the fact that I would be playing in Germany, where people will be talking about their games over the weekend. They won’t know what we have done, who I am, or how I played, so it will be difficult. However, it turns out that they do care when you just start talking, and I’m obviously interested in what those guys are doing. Before you enter, you really overthink it, and you just realize that they are great guys.