Jude Bellingham

Jude Victor William Bellingham (born 29 June 2003) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Championship club Birmingham City. When he made his senior debut in August 2019, at the age of 16 years, 38 days, he became the club's youngest ever first-team player. He has represented England at under-15, under-16 and under-17 levels.

Early life

Bellingham was born in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in 2003. He is the eldest son of Mark Bellingham, a sergeant in the West Midlands Police and prolific goalscorer in non-league football.

Club career

Bellingham joined Birmingham City as an under-8 in 2010. He made his debut for their under-23 team at the age of 15, on 15 October 2018 away to Nottingham Forest's U23s. Entering the game after an hour, he scored the only goal in the 87th minute "sliding in to force the ball over the goal line after pressure by Kyle McFarlane on the keeper diverted the ball into his path." By March 2019, he had three goals from ten development squad appearances, had featured in FourFourTwo's list of the "50 most exciting teenagers in English football", and was being mentioned as of interest to major European clubs. He was included as the "19th man" in the travelling party for the first-team's visit to West Bromwich Albion in the Championship on 29 March 2019.

Bellingham took up a two-year scholarship with Birmingham City to begin in July 2019. He was part of the first-team squad that spent a week in Portugal as part of their pre-season training, played and scored in pre-season friendlies, and was given squad number 22 for the 2019–20 season. On 6 August 2019, Bellingham became Birmingham City's youngest ever first-team player – at the age of 16 years, 38 days, beating the record of 16 years 139 days set by Trevor Francis in 1970 – when he started the EFL Cup first round visit to Portsmouth. He played for 80 minutes in the 3–0 defeat, and was the Birmingham Mail's man of the match. He made his first Football League appearance 19 days later, as a second-half substitute in a 3–0 defeat away to Swansea City, and his home debut on 31 August against Stoke City. Entering the game after half an hour to replace the injured Jefferson Montero, Bellingham went on to score the winning goal – albeit via a generous deflection – as Birmingham came back from 1–0 down to beat Stoke 2–1, and thus became Birmingham's youngest ever goalscorer, at the age of 16 years and 63 days. He started the next match, away to Charlton Athletic two weeks later, and scored the only goal from Kerim Mrabti's cutback.

He was EFL Young Player of the Month for November 2019.

International career

Bellingham was presented with a Special Achievement Award at the 2018 Birmingham City Academy awards night in recognition of his captaining the England under-15 team during the 2017–18 season. By the end of 2018 he had made his debut for the England under-16 team, and went on to feature in seven games, score four goals, and captain the team.

He was included in England's under-17 squad for the Syrenka Cup, a friendly tournament held in September 2019 in preparation for the 2020 European Championship qualifers the following March. He made his debut as a substitute in England's opening match of the tournament, a 5–0 defeat of Finland in which he scored the third goal, and captained the team in their second fixture, in which they came back from a goal behind to beat Austria 4–2 and qualify for the final. Again, Bellingham scored the third goal. He retained the captaincy for the final, in which England beat hosts Poland on penalties following a 2–2 draw, and was named player of the tournament.

Career statistics

As of match played 15 February 2020

Honours

England U17

• Syrenka Cup: 2019

Individual

• EFL Young Player of the Month: November 2019