Jude Bellingham: Who is the Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder in contention for the Golden Boy?

Jude Bellingham: Who is the Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder in contention for the Golden Boy?

Jude Bellingham, a Golden Boy contender, is creating history with Borussia Dortmund and England.

The Borussia Dortmund vs. Schalke Revierderby is dubbed “the mother of all derbies” for a reason. According to bundesliga.com, two of football’s most fervent fan bases compete for local bragging rights in Germany’s industrial heartland, setting off one of the greatest rivalries in the world.

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Jude Bellingham

Age: 19

Club: Borussia Dortmund

Position: Midfielder

Country: England (15 caps)

Key stats

Bellingham has experienced a spectacular climb since becoming a fan of Birmingham City at the age of seven. The youngest player to ever play for the Blues, he made his senior debut in an English League Cup game against Portsmouth in August 2019. He smashed a record that Trevor Francis had set 49 years earlier at the young age of 16 years, 38 days. At the end of that month, Bellingham broke another club record held by club great Francis by scoring the game-winning goal on his home debut against Stoke City while playing for Birmingham for the first time. Two weeks later, the teenager started and scored in a victory at Charlton Athletic, demonstrating that his initial goal wasn’t an aberration.

By the beginning of March 2020, Bellingham had participated in 31 league games in England’s second-tier Championship, starting 24 of them. She had also scored four goals and recorded two assists. Because of his efforts, he was named Young Player of the Month for November by the English Football League. In the summer of 2020, he joined a long list of young talents who saw Dortmund as the ideal place to grow.

When Bellingham scored the game-winning goal for Birmingham City against Stoke on his home debut in August 2019, it was a dream come true for him.

What a mistake that choice turned out to be. At the age of 17 years, two months, and 16 days, Bellingham became the youngest goal scorer in DFB Cup history in his competitive debut with BVB. On the first of his 29 Bundesliga games in the 2020–21 season, he then recorded an assist. At 17 years and 113 days, the Stourbridge native broke Phil Foden’s previous record for the youngest Englishman to start a UEFA Champions League game when he faced Lazio on October 20.

On his 24th appearance, Bellingham scored his first-ever Bundesliga goal against VfB Stuttgart. He once again etched his name into the Champions League annals four days later against Manchester City with an outstanding goal. At a younger age, only Bojan Krkic has scored in a Champions League knockout match (17 years and 217 days against Schalke in 2008).

The former Birmingham sensation, who was just 17 years and 289 days old, joined Youri Tielemans as one of just two players to have double digit Champions League appearances before turning 18. He also scored the competition’s first goal by a player of English descent who lives in Germany.

The following season, records and awards continued pouring. Aged 18 years and 78 days, Bellingham provided a goal and an assist against Besiktas to become the youngest Englishman to score on the road in the Champions League in September 2021. He beat Arminia Bielefeld to win the Bundesliga’s Goal of the Month award in October 2021, and in February 2022, he became the second-youngest player to make 50 Bundesliga appearances. The teenager had three league goals and eight assists in 2021–2022, earning him a nomination for the Golden Boy award for a second consecutive year.

He ranked third in the league in terms of duels won, sprints won, and intense runs won, as well as fourteenth in terms of distance traveled (208.8 miles/336.1 km) and thirty-first in terms of pass completion (85.9 percent).

In a 2-1 loss to Man City in the 2022/23 groups, Bellingham scored his fourth Champions League goal, the most by an English teenager in the competition, only days before making his 100th competitive appearance for Dortmund. He had made 18 appearances in the Champions League, which was a record for Englishmen under the age of 20 in the competition.

Gareth Southgate, the head coach of England, took note of Bellingham’s blindingly brilliant start to life at Signal Iduna Park and gave him his senior international debut in a November 2020 friendly victory over the Republic of Ireland. The third-youngest member of the Three Lions made his full debut in a victory against Austria in a Euro 2020 warm-up match before making history at the championship. The Dortmund midfielder momentarily replaced Harry Kane as the tournament’s youngest debutant during the second half of the team’s 1-0 victory over Croatia on Matchday 1.

At the age of 17 years and 349 days, he also surpassed Michael Owen’s mark as the youngest player to play for England in a significant event. Four days after turning 18 years old, he then broke the record for the youngest quarterfinalist in Euro history.

Plays a bit like: Steven Gerrard

Bellingham is an athletic box-to-box midfielder who doesn’t appear like a teenager trying to make it in a man’s game. In fact, Birmingham’s then-manager Pep Clotet stated in January 2020 that Bellingham has grown 2.4 centimeters since the start of the 2019–20 season. Whether he is aiding the offense or playing the defensive role, Bellingham makes up ground.

He has already played in a variety of positions during his brief career, having previously served as captain of the England U17 team. Bellingham’s future, though, is in the middle of the field, where Steven Gerrard, a former Liverpool and England captain, excelled.

Youngest man to appear at a UEFA EURO

Youngest man to play for England at a major tournament

A special day for 17-year-old

Did you know?

Bellingham’s dad Mark wasn’t a terrible football player either. Bellingham Snr. was a great goal scorer in English non-league football who scored more than 700 goals over the course of a 20-year playing career. Jobe, Jude’s younger brother, is listed on Birmingham’s records at the moment.

What they’re saying

“Jude is phenomenal. Just in training in the last couple of days, to have a 17-year-old, who wants to compete with senior players, not only has the technique, but the competitiveness and maturity… he’s a hugely exciting player. He’s going to be an important player for England. We’re not just taking him for the experience.” – Southgate on why he called up Bellingham for Euro 2020

“Jude’s an outstanding lad. He never stops running and just plays so well.” – former Dortmund head coach Marco Rose

“I cannot believe it, maybe he’s a liar. He’s so good for 17-years-old, he’s a fantastic player. There was one moment when he didn’t get the ball from central defenders, how he shouts and demands that ball to him at 17 means a lot. I spoke with his manager, Edin [Terzic], and he told me what you see in these two games is like every training session.” – Man City coach Pep Guardiola

“I like him very much. He is a box-to-box player, that old-school profile. I love everything about Bellingham. I can’t believe his age, only 17. The way he plays, the way he brings himself into the game, shows so much maturity.” – Jose Mourinho

“He has enormous potential, which we want to develop together further in the coming years. He already has astonishing quality with and without the ball, while he also has a strong mentality.” – former Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc

“I feel like you have to work for everything you get in football. That’s just the mentality I’ve got – mainly from Birmingham. Everything you want, you have to work for, and if you’re not getting it, you have to have something in you that sparks you to go and get it.” – Bellingham on his impressive mentality

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